Shul Oblaan
by Starspike7
Summary: A girl and a kahjiit, lost to everything and in need of a home must work together. Only by leaning on each other can they make their way toward a better tomorrow.
1. From Ashes

**Hello readers both new and old,**

 **S7: The old of you may remember a story similar to this one that I wrote a long time ago. While it is true that the opening is similar, this story has an entirely different direction and character connection. Anyway, for those of you that are new, this is a story about two characters that are wholly original to the two of us with no ties to the main quest of the Skyrim game. More or less, they have their own goals and journey in this story that is only tangential to the Dragonborn's quest. Anything to add partner?**

 **Raven Wings of Luna: As some of you can guess I'm Starspike7 new writing partner for this story, you can call me Raven for short, so it's nice to meet you all. I would also like to add the reason why we choose an M rating rather than a T. You should expect some darker themes and write in the later chapters and use an M rating allows us the room to breath in doing this. This may be but is not limited to, descriptive fighting, langue, sextual ones, discriptions of gore/murder/ death, and just all around adult jokes. If there is anything big that needs a warning we will be sure to add it to the start of the chapter for our readers whom may be concerned about that kind of stuff.**

 **Reviews and comments are welcome, so feel free to give us feedback on the story! As for updates on the story itself, you should be looking at maybe once a month at the minimum for moment for a new chapter.**

In the dusk of the evening, a young woman around at 5'3" ran through the dark forests almost desperately as if something was chasing her through the snowy trees. Each breath came out in a large white puff of clouds that hung in the air as they slowly faded from sight, each time her chest moved to take in more air her lungs stung with the effort of every labored breath. The burned and tattered brown roughspun tunic and pants barely kept the cold out from her body, each wind zapping what little strength she had left from running away from her body.

Hanging off her back a small sack bounced with each forced step the young girl took, the insides clinking softly against the harsher sound of her labored breathing. _Can't stop, have to keep moving, can't stop…_ she chanted over and over again in her head following the dirt path that wound its way through the forest away from Helgen or rather the now silent smoldering ruins of Helgen.

"Helgen…." Fresh hot tears forced their way out of the corner of slanted eyes running down her plump cheeks. _No! Don't think about it Magna, don't remember about that not now! You have to keep going._ Chastising herself mentally while forcing down the burning sob that threatened to spill out just like the tears running down her dirty pale face. Reaching up with a shaky slender hand Magna roughly rubbed away the tears and the dirt and soot covered blond hair away that stuck to the sweat on her forehead from her eyes.

Magna continued stumbled through the forest, every sharp little rock cutting into the fleshy part of her feet, the tiny stinging as the cold air hit them each time she brought up her feet. With the cold and tears stinging the corner of her eyes Magna didn't notice until it was too late that the forest floor dropped down into a sloping hill for her to stop the resulting tumble. Slowly down at the base of the hill Magna pushed herself up onto her knees with a small groan shaking out the dizziness from her mind before observing her current surroundings.

"Great now I'm even more lost…" Chewing on the inside of her cheek Magna slowly dragged her eyes across the clearing that she found herself in, a bit more slowly this time as she tried to get her bearings. "Trees, rocks, grass covered in bits of snow, a pile of fur, more r…" Freezing up Magna's voice died on her lips as she ever so slightly turned her eyes back over to the pile of fur taking a closer look at it only to realize that the pile of fur was, in fact, a male Khajiit.

He was laying in the fetal position wearing nothing but his underloin so luckily anything that was embarrassing was thankfully still covered. His burnt orange fur and black stripes were matted down and stained a dark color of crimson. Upon further inspection, Magna could see that it was due to the cuts and large gashes that looked to have been caused by the cliff behind him.

Magna continued to chew on the inside of her cheek, while they colored a dark red when she noticed that the male only had his underloins on, as she wiggled closer to the Khajiit on her knees across the cold ground until she was about a foot away from the Khajiit. A shiver ran up the girls spin making her teeth clatter all the more as she struggled to get up onto her feet looking one more at the Khajiit with a forlorn look in her eyes before turning away. "You have to think about yourself, Magna … you can't go helping strange Khajiit's in the nude…" Only having walked a few feet Magna and stopped in her tracks letting out a small groan of frustration as she turned heel walking back to the down Khajiit.

"Curse my stupid consensus…" Magna carefully knelt down beside the Khajiit as her lips settled into a hard frown while she brought her hands up and gently touched the males furry skin. Concentrating Magna eyes closed, her hands taking on an orange glow as her magic slowly knitted the gashes back together, but not enough that the Khajiit would not be without a few scars. In the end, Magna rested back on her heels panting from the effort feeling a few beads of sweat trickle down the back of her neck.

The Khajiit's eyes shot open with the alarm, quickly moving before Magna had the chance to register what was happening. He had one hand on her neck and the other hand on her shoulder to pin her against a nearby tree. Taking in several sniffs, he slowly came in close to the girl with eyes locked. There was a sign of him taking note of her features and calming enough for form a coherent thought.

"Girl, villager, Helgen, Nord… and Bosmer. Do you know why I'm here?" He asked, letting an air of calmness fall over them as accented by the snow falling lightly on them.

Magna had gasped in shock before it was quickly cut off from one furry hand cutting off the air in her throat. Kicking her feet around in a struggle Magna reached up and grabbed onto the hand holding her throat trying to lift herself up as she glared back at the Khajiit. Her light brown, almost orange eyes narrowing for a moment in anger before widening slightly in fear when the weight of her predicament finally came crashing down on her shoulders.

"Let…. me… go… stupid… cat…" Magna hissed between gasp of air while she dug her nails into his fur and flung her legs harder trying to get out of his hold.

Assessing the girl, he moved back and out of her reach so that there was no longer a way for her to scratch at him. It was evident that he was sizing her up for that moment, but he still didn't let her down. Pinning her other shoulder with his elbow, he released her throat with his hand but made sure to keep his claws visible to her.

"I will, once you answer my question, Bosmer." He replied, eyes still locked with hers.

Gasping for the sharp cold air as the pressure against her throat was released Magna narrowed her eyes a little bit still trying to wiggle her way out of the Khajiit's hold but glanced down at his claws ever so close to her skin and stopped moving.

"Why are you attacking me!? You were the one laying down naked in the bloody snow cat!" Magna snapped dragging her eyes back up to meet with his. "I don't even know you! Like I said you were the one lying on the ground dying I just happen to find you! I... " Magna glanced away before hanging her head in embarrassment before mumbling out the last of her sentence. "I just could not let someone die… so I healed you alright? But I didn't do anything else, I swear!"

"Oh, well, thank you then." He let go of her and let her drop to her feet so that she was no longer pushed painfully against the tree behind her. "There was no need for the name calling. You could have just said that you healed me."

The Khajiit's demeanor went from predator to civilized so fast that Magna almost got whiplash. He was an entirely different person as his ears perked up, showing off his ears with several small chips in them. His gaze drifted down, and he noticed that he wasn't wearing any clothes. Proceeding to fix that, he looked away from her and off into the forest in search of something.

"...You're the one who attacked me…" Magna rubbed her neck slowly, almost not noticing the sharp pain in her knees when the Khajiit dropped her. "And I'm not a Bosmer; I'm a Nord damn it! Clearly whatever almost killed you made you stupid as well!" Magna shouted after from her place on the ground watching the male look for something Magna carefully picked herself up wanting to get away from the confusing Khajiit as fast as she could. But as soon as she was back on her feet Magna felt the sharp impact on her knees as she fell back down onto her knees with shaky legs. The strain from running non-stop, pain from her feet, and using almost all her magicka on some crazy stranger, and what happened to her home left the girl shaking as shock slowly started to set in.

Magna hugged herself tightly slowly shaking her head back and forth trying to break out of her shock before it got out of hand, not wanting to look weak around the strange Khajiit if he came back. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves Magna reached out with a hand holding onto the rough bark as she pulled herself up from the ground taking a moment to run out the wobbly and shaky sensation of her legs, staring straight ahead with narrow eyes. Stumbling on the first step Magna caught herself from falling flat again glancing around making sure the Khajiit had not come back yet Magna quickly placed her other foot on the ground one after the other one and soon she had herself back to a light paced run.

Small clouds of white puffed from her mouth as the chilly air started to burn her lungs barely visible with the oncoming night as the weather began to take an even colder turn. _I need to find somewhere to take shelter… I will never last the night at this rate…_ Magna stumbled over a larger rock hissing out a string of unladylike curses as it cut into the top of her bare feet, falling into a nearby tree for support with a grumble of frustration.

"You know, it's a cold night and running through it in your state is sure to get you killed." The Khajiit answered, leaning on the tree next to her with his arms crossed.

His green eyes pierced through the vale of night and right into Magna's own. He'd just appeared out of nowhere, wearing a common orange tunic with a small bag at his hip. Over his shoulders was a small fur cloak that looked very warm. The anger and bloodthirst that was in his eyes before had all but faded and replaced by a casual tone.

A scream left Magna's chapped lips before she could throw a hand over her mouth to muffle it as her eyes widen in surprise at the sudden appearance of the Khajiit. Scrambling back in fright Magna feet slipped on the slick ground, falling backward landing on her butt a few feet away from the Khajiit with a grunt.

"How… what… where did you even come from?!" Magna eyed the Khajiit with scared and wary eyes not moving from her spot for now, and even if she hated to admit it in the back of her mind Magna knew that he was right.

"I just followed you. With all the noise you made and coupled with your weakness made it very easy." He answered, pulling off the cloak from his shoulders and holding out to her. "Here, cover yourself. You'll get sick if you try to continue."

Magna puffed out her cheeks before looking away turning her nose up into the air while she crossed her arms with a huff. "Well don't follow me, and I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not weak." Knocking his hand away Magna turned back and glared at the cat feeling her eyes narrowing at her apparent stalker, her ear slowly turning into annoyance. "And for your information, I will just do fine with the cold I am a Nord after all." As if to prove her point Magna pushed herself up onto her feet and started to walk away from the Khajiit with her back turned to him. _Don't look back, don't turn around, and don't let him see that you're cold._ Magna straightened her back a little bit more to accent her stubborn thoughts.

"Alright, that's good. I didn't want you to take my cloak anyway." Quickly, she found that his footsteps echoed her own closely. "As for following you, I must now."

Picking up her pace Magna walked a bit faster, refusing to turn her head to look at the strange male following her. "No. You. Don't." Magna almost growled each word fighting the urge to turn back and glance at him. "So you know, stop it and go back to well wherever you came from before, I met you."

"Well, I don't remember where that was, and a young girl like yourself should not be in these woods alone. Add that to knowing that I now owe you a life debt, and there is a reason why I cannot leave you." He said, sounding calm and composed with the frozen flakes falling down on them that made her shiver.

"I can handle myself thank you very much, I don't need an escort just for walking in the woods." Magna huffed with a roll of her eyes, clearly not believing his story as she crossing her arms and tucking her hands under her armpits trying to keep some warmth in them as the tips of her fingers started to turn a little blue. "You don't owe me anything, including a life debt over a little bit of healing." It took her effort to keep the chatter of her teeth out of her words, but with a tight jaw, Magna somehow managed not to chatter for now.

With her speech finished, and the cloak then draped over her shoulders to bring a bounty of warmth to her. The cat didn't say anything, though his steps quieted behind her but didn't disappear. Following the fading of sound came a small rustling through a bag and another most sounds of biting and lip smacking.

 _Maybe if I just humor him, then he will go away then._ Magna slowly pulled the cloak around her shoulders a bit tighter to take some more bite out of the air. Hearing the eating sounds Magna's eye twitched a little bit, turning her head slightly to shoot daggers at the Khajiit. "And you said I was lou-..." Magna words were cut off but a low rumble coming from her stomach reminding her that last time she had eaten was this morning with her father at the table. A slight prickle tickled the corner of her brown-orange eyes as the tears started to build up again, memories of the fight they had at breakfast then that monster was attacking… Magna trailed off in her thoughts not realizing that she had stopped walking and was staring off into space at the forest floor.

"Is this where you're planning to camp for the night?" Her stalker asked, taking a bite out of his bread with meat, vegetables, and spices shoved between two parts that he'd cut in half.

Magna blinked, a whimper pulled out of her throat as she turned her head to look blankly at the nameless male. "Even if I say no you're still going do it anyway aren't you?" Magna gave up with a sigh while she watched her new stalker for a moment, weighing her choices and reevaluating the situation she was in once more.

 _No matter what I say it looks like he is going to stick around anyway. Even if he were going to kill me, he would have done it by now, unless he is waiting for me to sleep. Maybe he is just waiting for me to fall asleep so he can rob me blind, after all, he is a Khajiit even if he is a well-spoken one at that. It looks like I have no choice at the moment but to just go along with his little act… but at the first sign of civilization, I'm dumping his ass and running._ Sighing Magna's shoulders slumped in defeat after a moment giving him her silent okay. Sitting down against a tree Magna went back to staring at the ground as a fresh wave of exhaustion washed over her body and mind making her numb.

"So memory lost huh? You do realize if you're lying it's a really poor lie, including if you're trying to get a stranger just to trust you." Magna dryly pointed out in a muffled voice from her spot under the tree, her head now resting on her knees as she watched the Khajiit.

"Well, how would lying further me now? I am sitting here with you and getting a camp ready to keep you safe." He replied, fishing a piece of paper out of his bag and looking at it. There was a look of dissatisfaction on his face, and he put it away and searching more. "What would you say if I was lying right now? Are you really in a position to not accept my help?"

Magna again bristled with anger that was quickly bubbling over her breaking point dealing with this rude man-beast in front of her. "I'm not the one stalking a stranger who has said several times they didn't want your help." She snapped back quickly narrowing her eyes again, wanting nothing more at the moment to see him set his fur on fire while he tried to lite a fire.

"True, very true. But then again, when that stranger saves your life, you are thereby indebted to them and must make sure to repay it in any way you can." He said, pulling out another piece of paper and giving a satisfied nod to its contents while she sighed.

"Well, you never know I could be some blood crazed murder who likes to play with her victims. I could just be using you until the time is right, make you soft and easy to kill." While she tried to intimidate him, putting on her best sticky sweet voice that oozed with sarcasm.

The Khajiit chuckled and took a knee down by her. He moved carefully and started gathering up some nearby sticks and putting them in a pyramid shape. Once they were all stacked together, he began collecting fist-sized rocks to place around the pyramid. After it was all in place, he slipped a bit of ground moss in the center. Finally, he leaned in with his hand against the wood and whispered to it, causing a fire to spark out and start in the small pit magically.

Magna watched the Khajiit start a fire while she stewed silently, her eyes widening once more when he whispered to it and started the blaze. "You… know magic?" Magna questioned the male as she edged a little bit closer to the heat of the growing fire, glancing up at the Khajiit with a wary look.

"Heh, somewhat. These supplement for the lack of skill though they are only one use." The Khajiit explained, holding up a small scroll of paper in his hand.

He stood up and dropped the paper on the fire before stepping to the other side of the fire and sitting cross-legged. His face twisted upward into a lighthearted smile, and he fished a jar out of his bag that was again bigger than would one assume would fit in the bag. With one finger he flicked the lid off, taking a long drink of its contents. The man was definitely strange as he was harder to read than a Dwarven tablet.

"No wait don't dr-..." Magna watched in dismay when he dropped the paper onto the fire her eyes filling with a forlorn look for a moment before she turned and glared at the Khajiit drinking. "I could have studied that jerk! Not only are you creepy and insane but your wasteful as well." Magna huffed but quickly gave up when she realized how little strength she had left. With jerky movements, Magna reached up and took her bag off her back and opened the slightly less impressive usual bag that the Khajiit had to look through what little belongings she had left.

 _My blank spell book, a few herbs… I think there might be enough here to make one or two weak potions of healing if I'm careful. A single piece of bread, a healing potion…_ Magna paused with a groan rubbing her forehead when she realized she could have just used the healing potion on the male and would have been far away by the time he woke up, and this whole situation would have never happened. _Great… what else do I have… oh, my neckless! Good, I'm happy I still have it… but I think it's better if I don't show it around him, I don't need him a reason to rob me._ Magna shot the male a look for a moment before pulling out her bread and taking a small bite out of it going back to stare at the fire as the two fell into uncomfortable silence.

"Why did you call me a Bosmer?" Magna questioned out of the blue glancing up at the Khajiit for a moment.

The Khajiit looked at her with a white milk mustache tracing his lips before pointing to his eyes and ears. "Your eyes are slightly pointed, not as much as a Bosmer but far more than any Nord. Same with your ears, they go to an edge and almost a point that makes you look more like a Bosmer than Nord. Even with that Nordic haircut, you can't hide who you are."

"Well, whatever made you forget why you were in the forest must have made you stupid as well. Both my mother and father were Nords, so I can't be a Bosmer like you keep claiming." Magna waved it off with a huff but reached up and quickly pulled more of her hair over the slightly pointed ears to hide them. Taking another bite out her bread, Magna was somewhat relieved as the churning of her stomach started to calm and settle down.

He shrugged to her statement and took a long drink from his milk to leave it half-empty now. "Say whatever you want and whatever you must to sleep at night, young girl. When you are ready to accept it, you know now."

"Great, not only do I have a stalker but he is also full of shit. This day can't get any worse…" Magna muttered as she curled her knees up to her chest letting out a long sigh as she rested her head on her knees. "And I'm not a young girl I'm a young _woman,_ a _Nord_ woman. I have a name as well you know, it's Magna ...get it right if you're going to talk about nonsense until my ears fall off." Magna huffed into her knees wrapping the fur cloak around her shoulders a bit tighter when a gust of wind blew over the two.

"Well Magna, it is a pleasure to meet you. You may call me Baldar." As he spoke, his head dipped down and nodded to make her acquaintance.

Once he finished with his milk, the cat stood up and started pulling an assortment of things out of his bag before finishing up the construction of a tent. Then he placed the bag off to the side and went about setting up the inside. Magna quickly noticed that this left Baldar bag completely exposed and unguarded between her and him.

Against ignoring her better judgment or any sound kind of common sense, Magna inched closer to the bag while Baldar back was turned away from the both of them until she was next to it. Glancing one more time at the working cat she slowly grabbed his bag taking a closer look at it. It felt light in her hands even though it was clear that there was a mass of stuff inside of it that would say logically otherwise. Glancing at Baldar again Magna opened it up and took a peek inside to see if her theory was correct or not, a wide smile crossing her cracked lips when she gleefully found that her theory was right. Holding onto the magical bag of holding Magna rummaged through it her curiosity getting the better of her, pulling out a leather bound journal. Placing the bag to the side Magna readjusted herself before flipping opening the book taking a look inside.

 _Dear Baldar,_

 _My love, I want you to take this journal with you on your travels and fill it with your wonderful stories. I can't wait to see you when you get back._

 _-K_

 _Well, it looks like he was not lying about his name, so that is a start I guess… Unless this is some bag, he stole from some poor old soul called Baldar. Besides what kind of cat is named Baldar anyway or speaks in like a normal Nord and not like his kind? Better keep my guard up still until I know more…"_ Magna made a small face at the love note and quickly flipped the page looking to see if there was any information on her stalker, but quickly realized that whatever stories that were in the book were in a language she didn't know how to read. _It's an older looking language but not elvish; that is for sure… maybe it's Dwemer? Hard to tell with his handwriting, though._

"Alright, my tent is set up. Do you have your own?" The newly dubbed Baldar said backing out of his tent. Looking inside Magna could see that there were a few soft furs laid down on the ground for bedding. Along with that, there was a light bug in a jar that hung from the top to light the whole little area. All in all, it looked like a pretty cozy place to spend a night.

Magna jumped a little bit pulled out of her musings of the book quickly shoving it back inside of the magical bag before shoving it off to the side sitting there with her hands in her lap trying to look as innocent as she could.

"I mean, I'm a Nord… I don't need a tent; I like the cold just fine thank you very much..." Magna rambled out crossing her arms she glanced away for a moment before looking back at the tent, it did look warm and inviting against the cold winds. Magna, to prove her point moved some of the snow that had not melted yet from around the fire away and curled up on the ground, grabbing her bag and tucked it close to her chest.

"Alright, well, should you need a place to stay then you may enter." He said, crawling into the tent and pulling the flaps closed.

Magna looked at the closed flaps before turning her back to the tent, her stubborn nature refusing to admit that she was almost too cold to stay outside in this weather and needed to get inside. _"I just need to sleep, as long as I stay close to the fire then it should not be that big of an issue… maybe I can wake up early enough to lose the stupid cat and forget this whole thing ever happened."_ Magna let out a sigh, feeling the crushing weight of the day's events crash down on her as her eyes fluttered close and quickly fell into a restless sleep.

" _Why won't you let me go daddy?!" Magna shouted standing up from her seat at the table she had been eating, forgetting the still steaming bowl of oats in front of her for a moment. "I refuse to let you practice that, that pointless ticks and light shows Magna! You are a Nord, and by the Nine, you will act like one and not some elf! You will not go to the College, not now, not ever! If I ever see or hear you practicing that foul… magic again I will make you regret the day you ever came across that damned book, do you understand young lady?!" A blonde Nord standing well over Magna own short height bellowed with a deep voice, pounding his hand on the table making the silverware clink and rattle from the force. Magna sucked in a gasp looking horrified at her father covering her mouth with a hand before her eyes narrowed in rage._

" _I hate you, daddy! I… I hate you; I wish mom were here and you were dead!" Magna screamed fighting back the tears in her eyes as she stormed out of the small house and into the streets of Helgen. A large shadow crossed over the town making Magna pause in confusion however she didn't stay confused long as the peaceful air shattered but the earth shattering rawr. Freezing mid-stride in the middle of the streets of the old fort town Magna watched in a mix of awe and horror as the beast, blacker than the blackest nights landed on top of the tower covering it with its massive scale-covered body. The weight of its massive form made the tower groan and shake hard enough that Magna felt the vibrations from down the street. Roaring with what sounded almost like words mixed with hellish thunder into the sky the dragon summoned a hellfire storm taking to the sky again without much effort circling the sky as it bellowed fire down onto the town._

 _A silent scream left Magna throat as she backed up narrowly missing as one of the rocks fell from the sky crashing into her. Turning Magna rushed back into her house only to look in dismay to see that it was already on fire, the roof slowly falling away to lite whatever left inside on fire. Forcing her feet to move Magna threw herself shoulder first into the burning door coughing as her lungs filled with smoke and cried out as the flames licked her skin._

" _DAD! DAD ARE YOU IN THERE?!" Magna cried out desperately into the house feeling the burning cry in her chest as her lungs took in the thick crude smoke, hearing no answer outside of the screaming of soldiers and town people dying around her. Coughing again as her eyes watered at the smoke Magna grabbed the only bag not on fire stuffing what little things she could think of into it before fleeing the house trying to find her father. Running down the road, Magna was stopped dead in tracks as the dragon landed down in front of her, the red eyes boring holes into her very soul. Fear gripped at Magna's heart as she froze, staring wide-eyed back at the dragon, mouth open in a never-ending scream as her body doused in flames..._

Magna shot up from her on the ground screaming, gasping for air like a person drowning in a river as she shook in the aftereffects of her nightmare. Covered in a thin line of sweat Magna held onto the fur cloak for dear life as she stared unseeing into her lap.

"Magna, you shouldn't be sweating in this cold," Baldar called from his tent, holding it up the flap. "Why don't you come in for the night?"

She looked over and saw he wasn't coming to get her or smiling; the Khajiit just looked like he didn't want to see her freeze, almost pity if she didn't know better. With a glance inside, she could see that there was a second sleeping bag set up and it did look rather warm. In fact, it had a nice fur lining that was just popping out of the entrance. It just looked like it was bursting with warmth and safety from the cold and whatever left over of her nightmare left in her waking mind.

Magna blinked at the cat standing at the entrance of the tent weighing her options at the moment before she slowly pushed herself off the ground, too tired to continue arguing with Baldar at the moment.

"Don't… think this means I trust you." Horsley Magna pointed this fact out bluntly while she shuffled over into the tent, quickly ducked around Baldar keeping a safe distance from him before slipping into the sleeping bag itself almost at once warmed up from the cold from the soft, supple fur lining of the bag. Taking a few minutes to get comfortable Magna fidgeted in the bag before turning her back to Baldar, not saying a word to the other person sharing the tent. But no matter how much Magna wanted to sleep the inklings of her nightmare lingered in the back of her mind, and everytime she closed her eyes, resigning her to stare at the tent wall in silence for the rest of the night.


	2. Smoked Cat

Baldar was the first to wake up in the morning and left him to do the morning duties. He walked through the forest with the large bundle of sticks on his shoulder. He was planning to make a large fire start the morning and hope it would be enough to keep them well after the weather from the previous night. The ground itself now covered in a good foot of snow and the morning held a calm silence as if the rest of the world had not woken up yet.

The walk was good for him, helping to make some sense of what he knew. The first thing he knew was that his name was Baldar… Or maybe it was K'Vash? The next thing he knew was that there was a lot in his bag, though he didn't really know how much. The third thing was that he was good at surviving. His sense of direction was spot on, and at least for this morning, he didn't eat anything poisonous.

The problem was really that he couldn't really remember much else beyond that. It was like a wall had been resurrected in his mind and cut him off from knowing anything about himself. He couldn't recall where he was from or how he had fallen the previous night. Friends and family were completely gone as well. The feeling left him with a strange feeling of relief and yet, a yearning for something.

The Khajiit arrived at the camp and saw that the tent was not open and there weren't any footprints leading away from the tent beside his own. He found it safe to assume that she was still there and proceeded to reconstruct the fire from the previous night. Placing the firewood into a similar pattern from the previous night, he used the remaining coals to start the fire back up and took his seat by it.

The blaze warmed him gradually, and in his waiting, he pulled his bag over and began looking through it for anything that might give him a clue to something. From the bag, he pulled out a short ebony dagger with gold trim on it. The trim took the appearance of tree limbs moving up from the handle to a cat's eye. The eye started back at him as if an old friend who was happy to see him again.

With a sigh, he put it back in his bag and fished around inside for another few seconds before pulling out a long white bow with a quiver attached to it. For a moment, he thought it had been made of some elven metal but was wrong in his assumption. It was a white oak bow with a steel reinforcement within it to keep it flexible and strong. By sheer muscle memory, he notched an arrow and pulled back with the world slowing down around him. There was a familiarity in this state that made him hyper-aware of his surroundings.

There were some shuffling noises from the tent as the flap was drawn back as Magna tucked it behind the clip to allow the tent to stay open. The woman looked tired, dead tired almost if he had anything to go by from the dark bags under her eyes. Blinking ever so slowly the Nord watched him silently before going around the campfire to sit down watching him silently.

Baldar looked at her and untensed the string to let it all go slack. "Well, how did you sleep? I assume better than you would have outside."

"I don't want to talk about it." Magna curtly spoke in a gruff voice turning her head away from him to look off somewhere in the forest while her hands fiddled with the burned and tattered clothes she had on her back. Now in the early morning light, Magna pale Nordic skin was dirty, covered in soot like her clothes as if she had just rolled around in an oven. The shoulder blade length slightly curly blond hair laid limp on top of Magna's head, dirt, mud, leaves and even a stick made up the rat's nest of hair. Overall the cat would notice his charge looked like something ate her then spat her back up, in a more or less metaphorical sense.

"Well, then would you like to talk about your current… attire? It hardly seems fitting for a lady to carry herself in a manner like you do now. Surely, we can stop by Riverwood and retrieve you something nice." He suggested, trying to keep a cheery smile since this girl seemed to be under great stress at the moment. The bow was then set down beside him, and he placed his hands on his lap.

"And why do you care what I wear or don't? You can keep that lady bullshit to yourself, cat." Magna grumbled lowly before standing up turning on her heels to walk away from him. "Besides its hard to get stuff when you have no money to buy stuff with, and I'm not going to start asking for you to help with that. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to find something to eat." Magna shot back over her shoulder giving him a glare before stalking off into the woods.

"With what? A stick? I hardly think a young girl such as yourself could handle that task alone." He observed, reaching into his sack and pulling out a hand full of dried meat. Taking one, he shoved it into his mouth before holding the strips out to Magna. "It's hardly fitting for me to sit and eat when you appear to be starving."

"..." Magna only glared at Baldar before reaching down towards the log pile and tossed the one she grabbed at his head. "No like a big old club, and for your information, I can handle it myself thank you very mu…" Magna stopped midway through her little spill looking like the girl was turning a bit paler by the second. The annoyed Nord woman wavered on her feet for a moment before slowly sitting down on the ground with a soft groan as she reached up to hold onto her head in what might have been a bit of dizziness. "Don't, say a goddamn word." Magna hissed snatching the meat out of his hand shoving half of it into her mouth, chewing in what he could only assume was bitter frustration.

Baldar took a bite of his jerky and sat back on his other hand to relax. The fire was warm and relaxing for him to soak in. All in all, it had been a good morning along with looking like this day would be a lot better than the previous. Lost in thought with everything that had happened over the few hours he could remember so far. "So, where are we headed today then?"

"..." Across from him, the girl was silent like she was pondering how to answer his question, finishing up the last bit of her jerky. "Helgen, I need to get to Helgen." Magna finally answered standing up to stretch out, her voice sounding more like hardening steel keeping whatever she was currently feeling away from Baldar unlike the other times before.

Baldar nodded to her words and pulled over his bag to look inside. After some fishing, he pulled out a leather map and opened it, revealing the entirety of Skyrim. It took a bit of thinking and figuring, but from the surrounding area, he was able to determine that they were just northeast of Helgen. "Alright, well, it looks like it's just on the other side of the mountain here."

Magna paused for a moment looking into the fire looking like she might have been thinking before she nodded her head again. "Okay let's go." Magna went back into the tent before coming back out a few seconds later with her bag over her shoulder ready to go.

"Slow down there, Magna. There is a mountain in our way, and we cannot just get up and walk around it. Especially after last night." Baldar informed, reaching into his sack and exploring it some more.

Manga crossed her arms and tapped a barefoot on the ground. "I _need_ to get back today. Once we get to the road, it won't be that bad." Manga pointed out to Baldar with a long sigh her shoulder slumping down a little bit. "If you won't help me get back then I will just have to get there myself."

"I never said that I wouldn't help you, only which neither of us is in any condition to make the journey right now. Let's relax a bit and wait for our strength to rejoin us." He suggested, pulling out a strange leather bound book that Magna would recognize. All it received was a shrug from him before getting set off to the side.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT!" Manga stopped her foot again, the loud yelling making the few winter birds in the trees scatter in fright. "I _need_ to get back today, now, I don't have much time to waste. I can worry about 'getting my strength back' whenever I'm back in Helgen, we can't be that far from the town, you… You a-are just being a lazy Khajiit! Why would I ever expect anything else from _you._ " Manga spat out turning her back to Baldar and went to the nearest tree and started to climb its trunk with what seem a little effort to him.

Baldar sat his sack down and walked over to the tree with his arms crossed. Something told him that he wished to observe her attempt to gain a vantage point. Immediately, he noticed her legs and arms shaking as they scaled and she was using her upper body more than her lower. At that rate, she'd come tumbling down out of the tree from exhaustion soon.

"Are you sure you can handle this? You don't look well Magna." He told, keeping a worried tone.

Magna paused, even from his spot on the ground he would see her knuckles were white from trying to grip onto the bark and stay on the tree. But the girl only shook her head and kept climbing the tree until she reached just high enough to see above the tree line, not climbing any further than that as she vanished among the pine needles and leaves.

"I-I see it, to the west! The road should be to the south not that far from us then!" Magna voice wavered a bit as she called down to Baldar.

"Yes, and we will head there when we have the strength." He reiterated, putting his hands behind his head as he waited for her to descend.

"I told you I don't have time for that. You are just trying to find an excuse to laze around all day. I'm sorry, but that is not the Nord way of doing things." The leaves started to rustle while the girl above him started to climb down, hugging the tree in a death grip while she inched her way down. Once Magna's feet were back on the ground, she kept her back turned away from him, adjusting her shirt before turning back around to face him. "Now I'm going now, whether you like it or not." Magna pushed past Baldar, shoving her shoulder into his side for good measure as she walked away from the camp.

Baldar turned and watched her walking away; his gut told him that he shouldn't let her go, but he didn't feel it was necessary at the moment. He'd been around the area, picking up sticks and not run into any trouble so he doubted there was anything around that would hurt her. With a cleared mind, he chose to let her walk and blow off steam while he remained at camp. The state she was in wouldn't allow her to get too far in her tantrum without him catching up.

The cat went back over to his bag and the fire, taking up the journal in hand and looking it over. Inside, the pages were written in a language he managed to recognize somehow. His mind searched for the answer, but none came to him. Instead, he was forced to look at it and read it. There was the talk of traveling and how he hoped for a big score of some sort. Something with enough money to set him up for life but he never gave an explanation of what it was.

Then, he looked at the note on the front, and it made his heart flutter for some strange reason. He couldn't remember who K was at all, but there was a special place in his soul for her. That feeling scared him immensely as he felt a sort of anger at it. The sense he belonged to someone just frustrated his very core.

This sudden upheaval in his thoughts made him stand up and start violently packing the tent and his belongings back into his bag. There was this urge to move and leave the area so that nobody could track him or find him. A weight of chains on his wrists made it even worse as he felt something drag behind him in his movements. Slowing him down and pulling him back toward something in the west.

Within a short period, he had all of his belongings together and hit the road toward Magna. Whatever was dragging behind him slowly lost his its grip as he pushed forward. Soon, he finds the girl, standing just on a hilltop watching smoke rise in the distance.

Baldar reached into his bag and pulled out his bow and quiver. "Magna was Helgen attack by bandits."

The girl spun on her heels with a squeak to face him, the orange-brown eyes going wide with surprise to see him standing there. "N-no… it's just fine nothing is wrong with it, but you should stay away… They hate your kind. Yeah, that is it." Magna sputtered out quickly, but her words fell flat, her body stiffening up noticeably.

"Oh well, I'm bound to follow you until I've saved your life. It's my way out of the debt I owe." He assured, giving her a pat on the shoulder and then looking back at the smoke. It was too dark to be a bonfire since the clouds were a thick black. No, there was something bad going on there.

"That smoke, though, I do not believe it is just from your village."

"I said don't worry about it!" Magna snapped slapping away his paw from her shoulder her face contorting into a scowl. "It's nothing for you to worry about, now leave me alone!" Magna pushed him away a little bit with a grunt.

Baldar quickly caught onto Magna's mood and crossed his arms with her statement. Then, he caught a whiff of something vile, and his mind immediately knew what it was. "No, we can't go there Magna. I think your village was attacked… I can smell the burning flesh."

Magna took a step away from Baldar a flash of grief crossing her face before the scowl quickly returned. "I don't care what you smell; I told you before I don't trust you! Whatever is going on, It's not of your business I already told you to leave me alone!" Magna shouted again turning to leave.

Sighing with her statement, he walked forward and grabbed her by the wrist. "No, Magna, life debt aside, I'm not letting you go into that fray. A child such as yourself should not be subject to this kind of carnage that lies ahead."

"I SAID LET ME GO!" Magna screeched in frustration twisting her body around trying to get away, but Baldar grip remained true trapping her there. Turning around to face him Magna eyes narrowed with clear resentment, but there was something else that flashed over her face too quick for him to pick out what emotion it was.

"I'm sorry." That was all the girl said with a burning heat, which seared at his skin spread across his chest and the hand that held her, followed by a gut-wrenching blow to his manhood.

The cat doubled over and grabbed his groin, eyes about to pop out of his head from pain. He couldn't recover quickly from this and just sat there cursing until finally a torrent of vomit shot from his mouth. "Why… why would you do that?!"

There was no explanation to his question as she pulled her arm out of his grasp and the sounds of footsteps walking away were all he is given. But there was a pause before the sound of something shuffling around in a bag came close by and the flat clink of something hitting the stone road quickly followed the sound of footsteps running away. Then there was only silence as Magna ran away rushing into Helgen by herself.

Baldar sat there, holding his groin while the pain started to come to the forefront if his mind. There was another sensation as he felt his skin start to bubble and bubble with heat. His fur singed and turned to dust before making him fall down on the ground. He then began to roll on the ground with the heat to try and stop off from burning him anymore, but the pain was so much.

Once the fire was out, Baldar laid there on the ground in pain and suffering from everything he had been through. It had sapped him of his strength and ability before leaving him half covered and in such pain. A simple movement made it feel like his skin was breaking or falling off onto the ground.

Something inside him wouldn't let him just let go, though, and he managed to roll over from his back to his belly. One unburned arm reached forward and grabbed the rocks to drag him toward the way Magna went. Some inner sense of duty is forcing himself to follow her to this extreme degree. It was like something in him was coaxing him on and telling him to keep going to her because she needed a hero right now.

With every gasp and drag, an image of some dark, sickly dark elf woman shot through his mind for a moment before disappearing. Never giving him an exact image of what it was but also showing him something that gave him strength. This wasn't the strength of love or happiness though and instead formed a pit in his stomach. The girl told him that this was his failure and soon another just like she would come.

That pain only got him so far, and soon he arrived back to where she had stood before running off down the path. In that spot, he faltered and curled up into a ball of pain and anguish. He wasn't going to get to be the hero anymore with the pain he had not. There was no way he could get up from this and keep going.

His hands moved on their own and brought something to his lips to drink. His eyes only opened a little to see what it was and the ends of his mouth bent up. It was the potion that Magna had left him before running off toward Helgen.

The potion brought up something though from within his mind. It was a younger elf girl from the flashes in his mind to a sitting position within an alleyway. Her knees were in her chest, and she was looking up at him with her large red eyes. They were sad and crying for some reason beyond him at that moment.

"Will you take me away from here?" she asked before the image faded away from his vision.

Baldar reached back and tried to clutch at his burnt flesh before the skin itself peeled off, and the new, healthier skin started to grow in. Sadly, the side effect of the health tonics was that they didn't stop the pain. Thus, every scab felt the excruciating pain of being formed and then slowly peaking off. Each boil started to pop and peel from his body.

It had taken a good while before his body had healed enough for his body to move and even then the aches and pains didn't go away. His pants had burned away almost completely except for the upper thigh and connecting piece. Besides that, his shirt is gone now, and his fur was in patches. If he had another healing potion, he could have grown some of it back, but he never found any in his bag.

The poor cat lets out a sigh and leaned on his bow, hobbling after Magna down the path. At this point, she could have already been in the town and taken hostage by whatever attack is. He'd have to go about this very carefully if he wanted to be safe. It'd help neither of them if he spooked Magna into fireballing him again or any bandits into acting.

It wasn't long before he arrived at the town to see the sorry state it was in. Pieces of the towers looked like they'd been ripped off by some powerful claws. The ground was melted all around the place and to the point that a thin layer of glass sealed it in. The sight made him pick his bow up and hold it at the ready with an arrow notched.

Baldar took a deep breath before walking down the road and made it to the front gate. The door closed shut so he carefully opened it to look inside. Inside the door, he saw bodies strewn about in strange places like they were thrown. Others were leaning into the rubble and looked like had looted through since the ground around them was covered in personal belongings.

The Khajiit's ears laid back while his eyes narrowed down the path with suspicion. His ears searching for any telling sounds that could tell if there were enemies nearby. There were signs of bandits being here, but currently, he knew they could have already moved on. That's when he decided just to press on forward and into the town with his senses on high alert.

Inside the town, the smell of burnt flesh and something more seemed to fill the air as he walked. Almost a smell of brimstone, like the demons of Molag Bal, had been there recently to destroy everything they deemed unfit. A disgusting scent to say the least but also a scent to be wary of too.

Before he got too far into the village, there was the sound of casual talk along with footsteps. Baldar hunkered down behind the fallen wall of a house from these sounds and watched as a group of men came around the corner with iron weapons in hand. They looked too happy to be in a place like this making the can insinuate that they must have been bandits.

"Alright, she was right over here." The leader said, pointing at a house with a door and one side completely burned away.

"You're sure that she was some sort of half breed?" Another man asked, pulling a knife from his belt. "Last time you said you found a half-breed it just turned out to be a Breton."

"A Breton prince!" He corrected.

"He was a Breton, everyone god damn one of them claims to hail from royalty." The other had retorted before the entire group laughed.

There was a part of Baldar that told him just to shoot now and take them out, but another told him not to cause unnecessary bloodshed. If they were coming up on someone and it wasn't Magna then there would be no reason to kill them if it wasn't. At least, that's what he kept telling himself when in reality he was probably going to have to kill these people no matter who was behind the door.

He watched though as one of them moved up the house's steps and got prepared. Two of them took their positions at each of the corners of the house while the other two moved a bit farther out to stop them whoever was inside tried to run. Their positions were a sign that these bandits had done this sort of thing before. Luckily for Baldar, it also made them great targets since there was no cover besides in the house.

Taking aim, he pulled his first arrow back and aimed for the one on the left side since he seemed to be the biggest one of them all. The one heading inside moved in, and a couple of seconds later there was a very feminine screech that rang out. That's when Baldar's arrow loosed and sailed through the air. The steel tipped arrow pierced the man's head and out the other side with still enough momentum to strike into the wall. Stapling the man in place though his eyes rolled up into his head.

The whole instance happened so fast that the remaining bandits only had enough time to witness their compatriots death before another arrow released. This one slammed into The closest flanker and lodged itself deep in his chest. From the blood that began to spurt from the wound, Baldar had hit the man's heart or one of the central channels to it.

The three that remained outside got a good idea of where the arrows were coming from but that just made Baldar act quicker. The next closest one took an arrow through his eyes before calling on top of it. The force was enough that it sent the arrow busting out of the back of his skull. The other two died in similar fashions in their charge toward him, trying to give themselves some chance of surviving since there was no cover.

There was none left outside after that, and it came down to the one that had moved into the house. Since the bandits that Baldar had attacked made sure to hell an extensive amount of noise, the man inside was aware of him. Before moving any closer, the cat looked into his belongings and found the black dagger from before.

With a knife in hand, he moved to the door and pushed it open slowly to make sure that he had the advantage of stealth. His stealth broke as soon as he saw Magna laying on the ground across from him, struggling to pick herself up. The sudden visage made him step forward to her without being able to stop himself out of worry for her sake.

"Mag-" Baldar was stopped before he could say her name with a dagger piercing his guts. It was dragged to the side, splitting him open and letting a gallon of blood drain onto the ground. The cat righted himself though and grabbed the bandit on his left. A raw determination is keeping him from reaching down and holding his stomach from falling out of his body.

"What the fu-" Was all the bandit was allowed to say before the cat's hand covered his mouth.

Black tendrils leaked out from his fingers and forearm and latched onto the man beside him. The rage inside of Baldar became far too insurmountable then, and he looked into the man's eyes while the tendrils latched onto his face and body. Slowly, he dried out while Baldar started to feel better from the draining of the man's life force.

"You've brought this on yourself, my friend. With a profession of banditry, you should have expected an early death." Baldar said, showing no joy in what he was doing.

The cat then took the dried body and tossed it into a few smoldering flames to hide any evidence of what he did before going over to Magna. "Magna, are you alright?"

Magna whimpered weakly reaching up to touch the back of her head, the blood lock soiled not only with dirt and ash but now with blood as well from where it would have seemed that the man had hit her over the head. The girl looked up from the floor and turned away from Baldar, almost like she didn't hear him or noticed that he was there next to her, struggling over to some of the smoldering rubble of the home Baldar watched as Magna reached out to the rubble. With his keen eyes, Baldar realized that a burned and charred black hand stuck out limply from the mess, the rest of the body having been buried under the pile of rubble.

Baldar let out a sigh of regret and took hold of her hand to stop her from taking the one of the dead. It was someone she must have cared about, but he did not know who. The cat then used that to roll her over and pick her up at the shoulders and knees. It was the time that they leave this place and head off to safety.

"C'mon Magna, Falkreath is not far from here." He said, standing up and leaving the house. Magna didn't protest being moved around or stopped from touching the dead but only returned his statement with an another whimper as she reached up to touch her head again with one hand while the other limply wrapped around his neck so she would not fall.

Now that Baldar had Magna safe once again the exhaustion of the day so far set in well over his body. He didn't know how beat up he was and why he went as far as he did for the girl but he did. There was a life debt he owed to her before, but now he had repaid it with his recent deed. He couldn't drop her now, though; she was scared and wounded from the attack. A small sigh escaped him as he thought about it now, he didn't have the courage to leave the only person he knew in this world even if that person didn't trust him. With that Baldar readjusted her weight on his back, so it was more comfortable, quickly retracing his steps to leave the ruined town and start down the correct road to Falkreath.

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	3. Holding It All Inn

As the evening started to set in on the mountainous landscape, the cold night time chill was starting to take hold over the warmer daytime air an odd pair traveled down one of the many worn down roads that lead to central hold city of Falkreath. On the back of a Khajiit, a blond Nord woman held on with her head buried into the nook of cat's neck as if she was trying to hide from the world around them. Both of the two were dirty, covered in different spots with dried caked blood, burns, soot, dirty, and whatever else they had picked up along the road giving the two of them a rugged and wary look about them. A dark, solemn aura hung about the air that nothing dared to interrupt, not even the common forest animals came out of hiding giving the world a more muted volume.

Magna looked about the road with dull eyes, for once in the past few hours awake enough to take in her surroundings, rather than most of the trip of being to zoned out and withdrawn even to notice that she was pressing into Baldar hard but warm furry back. Magna dragged her eyes to look at the woods around them seeing the time of day before watching the sky warily, noting the dark looking clouds in the heavens that would soon bring more snow in the coming days. However even with this Magna kept silent to Baldar, half wondering why he didn't just abandon her back in Helgen and get rid of her for good. " _After all, it would have been easier for you Baldar, your 'life' whatever you called it, it's fulfilled. Anyone else would have left already."_

But yet here he was, still taking care of her like she was a child and not capable of doing anything on her own. Typically Magna would have protested to such treatment from a stranger, especially one as arrogant and annoying as Baldar but for some reason that she could not place her finger on she was almost... Glad for his stalker nature for once, even if she hated to admit it, but it still did not mean she trusted him yet, no it was much more of a thankful feeling rather than trusting. _"But so help me gods the first time he steps out of line I will set him on fire again….and I'm not giving him a potion either this time…. stupid cat used my last potion."_

Pulling herself out of her foggy train of thought Magna shifted a little bit to adjusted herself to keep her arms from falling asleep from their place wrapped around the cat's neck, trying to keep as still as much as humanly possible, but asking for the impossible. Every muscle felt like someone took a red hot coal and held it in place, making it uncomfortable to move around without being reminded of the deep dull pain of just how tired her body was. At least the dull ebbing pain in the rest of her body distracted her momentarily from a pounding headache in the back of her skull from the man back in Helgen.

Magna stiffened feeling some bile work its way back up from her breakfast, the cold sweat that swept down the back of her neck made her shiver with disgust at the foul, bitter taste. What happened was still just a blurry mess, probably from the head trauma but over the day memories had slowly seeped back into her head at what happened. _"There were other people, but now there are not, something had happened to the group but what was it? I think I remember something about them talking about a half-breed of some kind, then they were screaming, or was it from me?"_

"Falkreath is just up the road from here. We can get you a bed at the inn and figure out what we will do afterward." Baldar broke voice broke through her thoughts, and the jarring pain as he hiked her up a bit so that she wasn't slipping down his back. Magna didn't reply like all the other times he had tried to start a conversation since Helgen, still too out of it to find a reason to idle chit chat as she sought to process what had happened the last few days. However, when he moved her up along his back, it made her whimper weakly from the motion making her muscles cry out in pain.

"Don't worry, just stay silent, and I'll carry you there. Just relax." He said though she could tell from the way he would shake at times that Baldar's strength was finally waning after all these miles that they had crossed. Magna looked down at Baldar finally noticing the state of his dress blinking for a moment before tapping his bare chest slowly, trying to get his attention silently to point this out. There was no way that any normal city watch would allow him just to waltz into the city looking like that, or with her looking like the way she was. The way they were going was one sure-fire ticket to a jail cell, maybe not for her but Baldar for sure. "Why do I even care if he gets thrown in jail again? I mean it would mean I would not have to be around him anymore but… it feels wrong."

Baldar noticed her taps and looked over his shoulder at her with concern. "What's wrong, Magna?" Magna pointed down to the scraps of fabric that were of his pants and the noticeable absent shirt that had been burned away in her attempt to escape from his vice grip that morning.

"...they… will throw you… in jail looking like this." Magna tried to explain her voice was cracking a little bit at the end when cramp started up in her lower back forcing her to stop for a moment to take a deep breath to steady her voice.

"Good point, mind if I set you down?" He asked, looking back at her to make sure she was good enough to stand on her own now. Magna quickly averted her eyes away from his before nodded slowly bracing herself to support herself for now on. _"After all, I need to get used to it from now.."_ Biting her lip to keep from making any noise when he did set her back down onto the ground. Swaying for a moment Magna held out her arms to keep her balance, and once that was back, the girl turned her back to Baldar giving him some privacy to change. Her body screamed protested all the moving around, Magna tried to take her mind off of the pain by looking at the forest around her. Looking for anything useful, she could prepare pickup to sell in town to make a few coins to get some new clothes or maybe even a bath or anything to keep her mind thinking about anything else then Baldar, Helgen, or anything else for that matter to keep her sane long enough to get some sleep.

Magna stumbled over to the edge of the road taking a closer look at a fallen log that was within her reach, brighten up a little bit seeing some of the fungi growing on the dead bark. Trying to kneel gracefully onto the ground Manga failed even at that simple task as she hit the ground with a hard thump sucking in a sharp breath to keep from yelping. Pushing forward with small jerky movements Magna tried her best to ignore the pain while she gathered the Mora Tapinella and Scaly Pholiota that were ready to be harvested.

" _This won't get me much but, anything will help. Best to have something to sell for money for a quick getaway if I need it, just in case..."_ Magna silently mused as she shoved the small pile of fungi into her bag and looked around again. Spotting some lavender, red and blue mountain flowers Magna shuffled over to the plants and started to rip them up from the ground careful to make sure not to damage the flowers too much. _"Papa always loved the red flowers…"_ Freezing Magna bit her lip; the little brighter mood she had quickly evaporated into nothing as she felt her lip quiver.

" _Maybe… that was not Papa; maybe that was just someone else trying to hide from the dragon. I… I won't know until I get to Falkreath. Papa always said if something were to happen to the town and we got separated to meet there and if we had to move on to leave a letter. I'm sure he is already there and waiting for me...he has to…"_ Magna bit down a little bit harder on her lip enough to make it bleed a little bit to stop her current train of thoughts. Grabbing an extra handful of lavender for good measure Magna focused on putting her energy to getting back up off the ground. Her body protested once again, this time only a little bit as Magna got better at blocking her body protest while she wavered making her waver and shake from the effort, but her stubborn Nord pride would not allow herself to give up just yet. Not when Baldar had just let her go to stand on her own, finding the last bit of resolve to keep going until she could reach a bed Magna stood up all the way trying not to look back at Baldar in case he was still changing.

"Alright, I'm done." Baldar state from behind her to the sound of patting cloth. When she turned around, she saw that he now wore a roughspun tunic with foot and hand wraps now. He looked like a slave, though. Magna frowned a little bit out his clothing but kept her thoughts to herself for the moment, after all, she did burn off his other set of clothing, she didn't get much of a say in his choice of clothing.

"Okay." Magna stumbled her way next to Baldar getting close enough to brush against his fur but quickly corrected this by leaning away. "Now, we go?"

Baldar kneeled down and leaned forward for Magna to let her crawl on his back. "Yeah, I'll keep carrying you until we reach the gates."

"I can walk by myself." Magna firmly stated looking down at Baldar before crossing her arms.

"You're sure?" The Khajiit asked, giving her a look of concern and a grip on her shoulder.

"..." Magna gave Baldar her best dead tried glance knowing her pride, even if she to prove that she could walk would be her downfall if Magna did not go along with his wishes, so she let out a small defeated sigh. Magna slowly wrapped her arms around the cat's neck to hold on waiting for him to stand up and braced for the pain to come.

Once she secured her arms around his neck, Baldar rose and started down the path with her. The Khajiit managed to keep himself strong and continue with the added weight. Though, all the pain he went through today must have made him utterly exhausted. Still, he pressed on through the lack of energy and kept going, and it impressed Magna how he would press on, but they were both tired physically and mentally and a good night rest would do the both of them some good.

Magna turned her head so that her face was resting away from his face on his furry shoulder, the long whiskers poking into her check enough to tickle her skin. Now it was the rough fabric that scratched into her cheek uncomfortably, but she never voiced her displeasure at least for the moment to the cat. Soon enough the two came over the last hill leading down into the hold city, the front gates laying out before them at the bottom of the sloping hill. Two guards stood out front of the gates, not noticing the pair just yet, and while it was open, it didn't drop Magna from stiffening a little bit, the first movement she had made since they started out again. She felt the frightened and worried tug painfully at her chest, what if her father never made it to Falkreath? What if she was all alone now in the world, or even worse what if that… dragon or any other dragon would show up here too? A lump painfully formed in her throat as another train of throat tickle into the back of her mind whispering in her ear. What about Baldar?

While yes her being a Nord she would have no problems just waltzing up to the gates and entering the holds city as she pleased, but for Baldar it was a different matter. Even if she thought the Khajiit was annoying, stalkerish, and at moments downright threatening and fighting in his sudden mood swings and the way he trusted her so quickly without question; getting him into the city without making a fuss was going to be an issue. _"I'm still shocked he didn't just rob me and run off into the night with my stuff yet or that he does not speak for the rest of his kind. I still don't trust him, but I at least owe it to him to help him get into the city to at least rest for the night… after that, I don't care what happens to him."_

Once they arrived at the gates, Baldar let her drop back and onto the ground so that she could walk inside. "Alright, as far as we are concerned from now on. I'm going to be your slave. Go ahead and tell me to do whatever you want. However, let's go right into the inn and tell them that you and your slave will be staying then for the night. Then, tell me to pay them."

Magna looked up at Baldar while she steadied herself on her own two feet for the moment thinking over his plan. She opened up her mouth, raising a finger in the air before crossing her arms and closing her mouth. Looking away from the taller Khajiit Magna ran over her choices quickly as her mind could in her current state, she realized that his solution to their unspoken problem was the best option at this point. It was not uncommon to have Khajiit as indentured servants to families as help or bodyguards. Letting out a sigh Magna silently agreed and started to walk towards the gates trying to hold her head up high and act normal, even if her sore legs and body protested very loudly in the process.

Slowly they made their way to the gate of the city, as Magna tried to step through the gates looking as least suspicious as she could one the guards stepped out and stopped her.

"Oi, whatcha doing there girl!" The guard said, walking over with his hand on his sword hilt. "Do you have papers for that slave?"

" _Shit! I needed papers!? Oh, why didn't I think this plan out before agreeing…"_

Magna stumbled almost running into the guard as she tried to stop without falling onto her face. Ever so slowly Magna looked up at the Nordic guard, swallowing hard as her mind stalled for answers to things she did not have answers for.

"U-uhh… yes? Oh Yes yes, of course, I have papers, who would not have papers on their slaves." Magna bluffed pursing her lips a little bit turning her head back to Baldar giving him a pleading look hidden away from the guards. "Slave show them your papers, hurry up I want to get a hot bath some time tonight now." Magna felt her voice go up an octave with her horrible bluffing and over the top performance, even going as so far as to clap a few times at Baldar to try to sell it.

Magna spotted Baldar's eyes closing for a moment before he smiled for a second before looking back at her before raising his hand up and showing them his palm with a weird symbol on it. "Master, a Nord noble like yourself does not need to carry papers on you since to carry papers would mean having sensitive documents on you at all times. Also, this guard is treating you like a fool. He knows all he has to see is my tattoo."

Magna narrowed her eyes at Baldar fuming with embarrassment that apparently shouted: _"Why do you do this Baldar?!"_ Turning back to the guard she put on her sweetest smile she could muster. "Why thank you, slave, am I not just blessed by the Divine by this sweet, intelligent slave? I'm so happy my father bought him for me~" Magna nervously chuckled back at the guard edging around him. "Now please I must get some sleep the trip has simply left me drained of energy to entertain um... menfolk with talk." Magna now around the guard edged away into the town keeping the sweet smile as long as she could hoping they would not question them anymore.

"Very well, move along." The guard said, walking over to his friend with a chuckle. Magna quickly left looking for the inn, glancing behind just to make sure no one was watching before she reached up mustering up the strength to grab hold of one of Baldar ears to pull him down to eye level.

"What in Oblivion was that all about?! Why didn't you tell me about papers and whatever is on your hand?!" She hissed angrily still flustered with the exchange.

"I literally drew it on as a backup plan." He held up his hand and showed that he drew a dragon in chains on his hand. "I just came up with this. I don't even know if slaves have tattoos in Skyrim. No memory, remember?" Magna felt her face flushed, letting go of his ear using the hand to rub an arm.

"Right that… Sorry… I forgot about that. Look I don't know the first thing about slaves alright? Never actually picked up a book on them other than what my… never mind let's just go get a room." Magna brushed past Baldar walking down the road making a note of where the general store was for later so she could get a new pair of clothes before turning in for the night. Spotting the worn wooden sign of two mugs tapped together mid-toast and the bold writing of "Dead Man's Drink" signaling the old wooden building to be the Tavern. Walking up the steps slowly, Magna pushed open the door, relaxing a little bit as the warm smell of bread and meat washed over her even from the door the fire in the middle of the building warmed her to her bones. Glancing around the small Inn, Manga spotted an alchemy station in one of the corners next to an old Nord, drinking his mead in peace. Across the way idly playing a few bars of a song was a Breton bard who next to him was a Nordic woman sweeping the place looking extremely bored with life.

"I would like… um one room please for me and my slave." Magna glanced back at Baldar for some sign that she was doing this act right before turning back to the woman Imperial running the Inn.

The innkeeper looked at Magna before bringing up a cup and wiping it with one of the cloths she had nearby. "I don't see a problem with that. Though looks like you're treating your skooma addict a little too good if you ask me. He looks like he's in perfect health."

"Oh, why… thank you? Father makes sure they don't get into any of that kind of stuff. Makes them lazy you know?" Magna glanced around chuckling nervously again before glancing back at her 'slave'. "Pay her whatever she asks for, slave."

Baldar reached into his pouch and pulled out a sack of gold before walking over to the counter and putting several gold coins upon it. He then turned back around and put it back without saying anything, the innkeeper looking over the currency and making sure that it was the right amount. "Alright, looks like you got enough. But mind you, be careful with his kind. You don't got him in chains, and he has your gold. If he runs away, you are going to be sorely out of luck."

"O-Oh, um thank you I will keep that in mind… Would you by chance have a letter or word for someone named Magna?" Magna hopefully asked, feeling the fluttering hope rising in her chest.

"Nope." The in keeping said, continuing to wipe down her glass. No… Magna deflated looking down at the ground and took a step away from the counter with an understanding nod of her head; a deep pain started to twist in her chest like someone was starting to take a hot knife and stab her with it. Standing there for a moment she struggled to find her voice again, but somehow managed to squeeze some reply past her tightening throat. "O.. oh.. Okay thank you anyway. Can you show me to the room now?" Magna requested, her voice falling flat, almost dead as all hope was left over died as quickly as the answer left the woman's lips.

"It's the first one on the left there. No need to show you there." The innkeeper said, continuing her work without looking up from it. It was evident that she didn't care about them beyond getting her money. Magna didn't bother speaking again as she slowly trudged her way into the room, closing the door behind them once Baldar walked the slid down the back of the wooden door until she felt the cold stone floor on her backside. Curling up Magna hugged her knees and rocked back and forth slowly, a thing she often did when she was upset over something as it helped sooth her, but now, now it didn't help.

The overwhelming crushing guilt slammed into her like a bag of stones, sending her over an edge that Magna had never thought she would reach, one of utter despair. The crushing hard swollen red she was homeless, alone, never would be able to apologize to her father for their fight but the last words she spoke to him was I hate you.

" _I… want to take it back Papa; I want to take it back! Please no no no, please don't let this be true! It can't be true; the world is not that cruel this just has to be a dream a really long and ugly dream."_ Magna mind raced, pulling at any corner of thought that could offer her even the tiniest bit of hope or confirmation that this was just a dream or all a lie. But there was none. There would never be one that she could believe in, without lying to herself. This was her reality, something she could touch and feel, smell, remember. There was no denying reality, as this was not a plane of Oblivion where the rules could be twisted and bent, no this was the waking world.

" _I… can't take it back… why, why WHY!? Papa… I left you; I ran away… I should have been there with you… It should have been me…"_ Magna voice wailed in her mind, morning the facts of her life as regret started to take over her soul. The chance to make things right has passed by her, and there was nothing she could do about it. No amount of knowledge about the universe, magic, or skill could change what happened, and it left Magna feeling helpless and alone for the first time in her life. The despair grabbed at her soul with its shadowy fingers, dragging her down further into the black abyss, smothering out the daylight with nothing but a whimper. An icy hand of fear wormed its way around Magna's heart slowly tightening its cold fingers around it, freezing her breath in her throat. She was too weak by herself to fight off the fear, despair and claw her way out of the abyss by her own means.

" _I can't do this…"_

Struggling feasibly Magna felt the small embers of frustration start to burn away the fingers around her heart and soul, the mournful thoughts replaced by one by one with disappointed and anger not only at fate but mostly herself. It angered Magna to think that the only reason she was even able to make it this far over the last few days was because of Baldar. The embers grew into flames that burned at her belly at having to rely on a stranger for help, to be saved once already and helped so much more times than she could help, the gratefulness she had felt before melted into loathing for herself for every moment of it. _"I'm a Nord; I should not be so weak like this! What is wrong with me… why do I feel… why do I feel deep down that this is okay to be like this… why?"_ The frustration boiled around in her mind taking all her attention away from everything else that was happening around her.

A stinging wetness at the corner of her eyes and her arms becoming most hardly registered amongst the emotional turmoil as the deep boiling frustration and grief manifesting itself into tears that burned down her dirty cheeks leaving two clear trails behind. Magna was simply, just there, crying on the floor of the cold stone with nothing else going through her mind. Magna continued to rock back and forth, shaking a little bit every now and again from the slight chill that was starting to set in due to the cold floor unsure of how long she was like that before she eventually calmed down from crying. She was mostly silent but for the small sniffles and hiccups every now and again as she tried to wipe her face clean of tears, but only made the red ugly puffiness worse by doing so. Magna was left feeling a little bit calmer, but still felt the painful aching in her heart that slowly ebbed away into a dull ache, her thoughts logic slowly returning as the strong emotions remained spent.

Baldar sat down next to her with some food in hand and most of his slave garb off. "Hey, it's okay to cry. Just let it out."

"S….shut up…please…" Magna grumbled weakly not trying to be rude but rather to tried to deal with others input of others, while running another hand across her cheeks to clean up the last few remaining tears. Sniffling Magna glanced down at the food and felt her stomach twist before growling with hunger reminding her that she haven't had anything to eat but for the few bites of jerky this morning that seemed so long ago.

Baldar reached up on the table and sat a plate in front of her with a similar meal to his own. It was a slice of bread with cabbage and tomatoes in it with some meat inside. From the smell, she assumed it was venison in the center making it all the stranger to mixing all of this together. "Here, eat and cry. It's good for mourning."

Glancing down at the plate Magna looked the food over for a few seconds pondering the strange creation that was placed before her; a stray thought crossed her mind to ask and if he poisoned it somehow with something from his bag of never-ending conveniences. Picking up the creation Magna picked at the cabbage silently, then went and pulled the tomatoes out of the stack, sitting them down to the plate with a small look of disgust. Taking a tentative small bite, chewing slowly to relish the taste at first, surprised at how it was not unpleasant as she first thought it would be. After the first bite, Magna quickly devoured the food, resting her head on her knees while her stomach was adjusting to having food inside of it again. Her mind started to pick back up now that she had cried and let out the emotions she had built up for the last few days, while it left her shaky it also cleared her mind, returning her logic. Staring up at the ceiling Manga started to formulate a plan for what she needed to do next, and the more time she spent sitting on the floor crying was wasted time she could be doing something, anything really.

"... I.. I need new clothes… I'm going out to look around and see what they have in the general store." Manga pointed suddenly, her voice cracking a little bit while she picked at her burned clothes watching as another flake fell off the tattered end of her pants. Using the back of the door to help herself up despite her body cries of protest Manga pushed it aside, after all, what would her father say if he saw her now sitting around crying? She was a strong Nord woman dammit, and by the gods, she was going to prove it by stowing away her feelings and moving forward.

"You going to walk around too?"

"No, I'll have to stay here. I'm still your slave after all." Baldar pointed out, bringing out the journal and opening it up to read.

"But why should that matter? I mean it was just an act, we got into the town now you don't have to pretend anymore…" Magna paused confused as to why he didn't want to walk around. "And even if it did can't you say you are just… I don't know running errands or something? I really don't know how all this is supposed to work, the slave thing alright?"

"Because, a Khajiit walking around a Nord town is subject to getting beat to death or refuse to barter with them unless they have a reputation to protect them." Baldar pointed out, eating his food and continuing to read his book. He showed no signs of agitation about not being able to leave just a kind of quiet acceptance. Magna shifted uncomfortably on her feet while she watched Baldar just accept what was going on and a part of her felt guilty about how he had to act like this just to be safe in the city. It also made her feel something else she could place her finger on at the moment, but Magna quickly pushed it to the side. " _I guess he is just used to this kind of stuff, sad actually but it's not as I treated him any better… but again he IS a Khajiit still… but why does thinking that make me feel so… disappointed in myself?"_ "Uh… is there anything you need then?"

"No, my bag seems to have my necessary contents for survival. Though…" He reached into his bag and pulled out a large bag of gold. After holding it for a bit, he tossed it to her. "You will need some money to buy clothes. Take this."

Magna looked at the bag, her brows turning down in a frown, having the half the mind to ask where he got the money from but she was sure he would either lie or just not know.

"I will be fine, keep your money You may need it one day." Magna pushed the bag away and deeper into his paws before turning away. "I will be back later." Magna opened up the door to the room glancing back at the cat sitting in their room quickly leaving before he could protest her refusal by shutting the door in his face. Magna flinched a little bit at the loud noise, closing the door the door a bit harder than she originally intended to in his face.

Magna took a deep breath in and out, breathing in the burning wood smell once more to relax her mind a little bit with something familiar to ground her mind a little bit more for a little while so that she could do what she must have to do. Shifting the bag on her shoulder, a little bit Magna straightened her protesting back once more and shifted her way out of the tavern. Looking up at the now darkened sky dotted with the many stars and the soft glow of the torch lights being lit by the guard folk as they patrolled through the town. Without the moons rising in the sky yet Magna had some time before the shops would close up for the night, even if it were just for an hour or two by the looks of it as it gave her time to look around the tiny town before selling any of her findings along the road to just one person. After all, she might be able to find someone who would buy her items at a higher price than the other shop.

Noting the general store across from the tavern Magna carefully walked down the main street glancing about at the cozy cottages that rested snugly into the thick evergreen trees, a feeling so much different than how Helgen felt with its stone walls. Even with the torch light, it seemed like the whole town had been covered in a depressing gloom to many but if one looked at it in another way it felt more homely, welcoming in the darkness then freighting with its shroud of death. Even the paths Manga noted where hugged with the fauna of the forest that seemed to choke the very air with their fragrance of mountain flowers, dragon tongues, bellflowers and the sticky sweet smell of snowberries that cropped up between the large fern trees. The idle chit chat of the townspeople as they settled down for the evening, the light pounding of metal on metal muddled in the air as Manga walked past the Smither still slaving away at his forge. The clangs of the hammer were only stopping for a bit while the long sighing hiss of the bellows blowing new life into the coals overtook the air when he stuck his current order back into the flames to heat up.

Maybe I should ask tomorrow if I can borrow his forge for a little while. I don't have any weapons, and well I rather not keep that going for long.

Standing at the fork in the road Magna glanced off to her left noting the few chickens running around what looked to be a farmhouse, along with with a small bit of farmland then a bigger house just behind it must have begun to someone wealthier in the town. To her right was the Jarl's longhouse, the banner of Falkreath fluttering in the chilly breeze that passed through the village. The breeze brought a shiver down Magna's spine bringing her out of her musings and her attention back on the task at hand. Taking the road going to the right she glanced at the store whose sign was a motor and pedestal with the faint engraving of its name written above the sign spelling out Grave Concoctions. Magna smiled up at the shop and quickly made her way to the door, slowly pushing it open while she let her eyes adjusted to the brighter candle light inside.

Through the smoky haze of whoever the store owners dinner was cooking on the nearby fire, the sweet and bitter aroma of alchemy ingredients and potions filled the air. The smell relaxed Magna even more then the Tavern smell, the familiarity of each sent pulled at her memories one way or another. A small cough came from the Redguard woman clad in dull brown clothes standing behind the counter drew Magna attention over to her.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" The woman offered forcing Magna to nod slowly as she trotted over to the counter, taking off her bag and opening it up. Dumping out all the mushrooms and flowers that she had picked from earlier that evening Magna quickly sorted them out in front of the Redguard shopkeeper into small neat piles so it would be easier for her to pick through the plants.

"I… would like to sell these please." Magna hesitantly started off glancing over her goods once more, giving herself a small nod before looking up at the taller woman in the eye with a steely gaze. While she might have been physically weak now was no time to be mentally weak if she was going to come anywhere close to the amount she needed to get new clothes. The shopkeep picked up one of the Mora Tapinella holding it between her fingers, giving it a once over with an overly critical eye, looking for every blush and blemish.

"Hmm, these are excellent, the cap is not even damaged from the cutting nor is the base of the stalk. It's hard to find people who know how to cut foliage the proper way nowadays it seems." The woman mused with a slight chuckle as she placed the mushroom down and started to look over the others more quickly this time. After the last of the mushrooms were looked over the woman moved onto the lavender and red and blue mountain flowers treating them with more care as to not bruise the petals of the selected plants.

"Not bad, the blue flowers are a little bit on the older side, but they will see be useable in some weaker potions. The red ones and lavender are still fresh enough that they will do just nicely for my next batch of potions." The woman explains while Magna nodded her head quickly in agreement shifting a little bit uneasily on her feet as she waited for the final offer. "I will give you forty gold for everything how does that sound for you?"

Magna mulled the price over in her head for a few moments, tapping her chin in thought as she went through what she would try to buy the ingredients off someone else if they brought them to her, just like she used to do back at home. "Alright, I will take it." Magna finally agreed after a minute of silence with another nod of her head watching the woman take out her strongbox and count out the coins in stacks of ten. Magna went through each pile herself and tested each of the gold coins making sure that they were for real and she did have the right amount in the end. Once everything was settled Manga quickly placed the money into her bag and replaced it onto her shoulder making sure that it would not fall off if she had to let go of the strap.

"Thank you for your business young lady, be careful out there you hear?" The woman called out as Magna went to walk out of the shop pausing for a moment before turning her head giving the woman a smile. "Thank you, you too." And with that Magna quickly made her way out back into the town heading to the general store to see what kind of clothes the owner had to offer and if she could buy whatever made, she could buy as well.

In under an hour Magna walked back into the Tavern wearing a fresh set of clothes, and still dripping wet hair from a quick bath, she took in one of the smaller pools on the cliff side further upstream from the log mill on the other end of town. Magna had used the last bit of lavender along the road to help remove all the bloody and ash smell from her skin. Free for the first time in days from the dirt, soot, blood, and whatever she had picked up along the road Magna sat down by the fire to warm up from the cold mountain water, looking down at her new clothes, quite proud of her haul.

Along knee length light green shirt covered her upper body, its collar sticking up a little bit with a bit of string in the front to tighten or loosen the chest portion to the wearers need. The sleeves were long enough to reach the start of her hands, with the arm parts of the sleeve having enough fabric to bag slightly, giving her room to move around as need be. The longer shirt was gathered up under a darker green shirt that had a leather belt and armor sewn into it's stitched, its length reaching down to her hips. The leather covered her shoulders in small light pads along with the top part of her upper arms, leading down to two leather gloves that covered the rest of her hands and arms.

The darker green fabric covered her bosom before giving way to more leather underneath her chest that gave it some support. The belt held the darker shirt close and together above her tiny waist while a strap of leather kept it shoulder pads went just under her collar bone, allowing this piece of fabric to hug her body more tightly than the lighter green shirt. Baggy gray pants covered her legs and tall leather boots that reached just below her knees now covered her feet. To top it all off a lone silver necklace no bigger than the palm of her small hand, the center was an opal of dark purple color with mixes of deep green, lighter blue, and a touch of red running through the stone like veins. Around the stone five leaves branched out around the stone curling it in a gentle embrace while one reached up towards her neck that attached to a thin silver chain.

Looking into the fire for some time, once she was warmed up Magna pushed herself up off the bench and back into her room closing the door behind her. In the dark Magna looked for Baldar, finding a Baldar shape thing laying on the floor covered in a blanket. Probably from his endless bag of wonders I guess. Magna mused to herself silently as she slowly sat down on the bed trying not to wake him up. As quietly as she could, Magna took off her new boots and unbuckled her belt before taking off her leather and dark green shirt leaving her just in her lighter shirt and pants. With a soft sigh, Magna curled up on the bed facing the wall staring at it in the dark.

Magna was unsure when she finally fell asleep or if she ever did at all, but after a few hours, she found herself tossing and turning. Her mind flashing back to show her vivid images of the dragon attack on her home, to the burned body inside of her house to Baldar draining the life from one of the men who attacked her. Thoughts, questions, and raw emotions kept her from truly falling asleep as she tossed and turned, sometimes noticing the tears that would actually leak out from behind her closed eyes and other times she didn't see anything at all. Restless Magna sat up in bed rubbing her eyes trying to keep her sniffling silent, not wanting another lecture from her stalker this late at night. She needed something to help dull and numb her mind long enough so that she could get some sleep; maybe there was something out in the central hall area that would be able to help her.

With careful footsteps, Magna walked across the cold wooden floor and opened up the door just enough for her to slip through before closing it again wincing at the slight creaking noise the door made when she did so. Looking about the darkened room again as the roaring fires from earlier that night had started to die down in a smoldering fire Magna spotted an Alchemy station off to one corner of the room. Trotting over to it Magna let her fingers run over the wood and stone with a small smile gracing her lips. Taking a deep breath and letting herself zone out for a while Magna took a few of the free items around the room and started to play around with the station, seeing what she could come up or what she could improve with one of the potions she knew how to make.

Magna zoned out into her work for a while not noticing the old Nord drinking some of the ale taking a curiosity to her and moving closer to where she was working.

"Now humor this old man will ya girl? Why is someone like you doing up this late at night, it can't be the dying need to make dem potions can it?" The older man cackled with laughter when Magna jumped with a squeak her heart almost jumping out of her throat from the fright. "Sorry lass didn't mean to frighten you, but again why is someone such as yourself doing up this late into the night?" The old man pressed again watching Magna shift on her feet comfortable while she toyed with the hem of her shirt.

"I could not sleep…" Magna finally mumbled out glancing down at the floor feeling the heat flush up to her cheeks in her own embarrassment.

"Ah I see, I have had many a night like that where the past keeps even this old man awake." He chuckled with another swing of his drink. "Why don't you tell this old warrior about it? After all, I can see it in your eyes you seen something not right to keep you up like this, the look of someone who has looked at death in the face and spat at it."

"I… would not call it spitting in the face of death…. More like running away." Magna didn't know she was even talking to the senile old man; maybe it was the lack of proper sleep or maybe she finally went mad from all she had been, through, who could tell at this point was anyone guess. Sitting down on the bench next to the older Nord Magna looked down at the wooden table for a long time before speaking again.

"...I… saw a dragon… It was black as night, and it called down fire from the sky. I Don't know why it attacked Helgen… I… I was so scared… I ran away without even seeing if my father was okay… I just, all I could think about was running away from it." Magna started putting her face in her hands to hide her shame, letting her elbows rest on top of the table. "If I were not crazy, I would say it was… Aldwin, from the old stories but that can't be true, it just can't be him. A dragon maybe just a slight maybe that can be back, but it? I don't know if what I saw was just. Built up from my fear or… or if it was right sir... " Magna took a deep shuddering breath feeling the tears prick at the edges of her eyes again, forcing her to bite down on her lip to keep the building sob from reaching an audible level again. The words tumbled out of her mouth quicker than she could stop the flow of words as she kept on babbling to the old man about her experience.

Okay so now that I sound like a mad woman might as well ride this out…

"I was… just so scared so I ran, I ran away like a coward. How can I even call myself a Nord… I ran away and didn't even stay to fight or help my father, and now…. And now…" Magna throat closed up as a sob choked its way out from behind her teeth forcing her to stop talking for now. There was a gentle pat on her shoulder, and a soft hum from beside her as the old man pondered over her words. "And now… I can never say sorry for yelling at him after we fought about… me wanting to go to the Mage collage."

"If what ya say is true lass then you're not coward, you faced the world eater and can live to tell the tale of it to your grandchildren one day! Sometimes even us Nords need to run away from a fight we can not win; it just means that the gods have a different plan for us and need us elsewhere. Now we can't do that if we all go rushing into a battle we can't even win like that now can we wee one? No, you are proving you have the Nord's will to live to fight another day, and when you have your next fight I can bet your blond hair that you will fight tooth and nail like a proper Nord woman should and make your papa proud of you." Magna was floored by the old man's words as she sat there trying to calm herself down the tears kept flowing again like before, but this time it was almost an actual grieving cry, as somewhere down in her heart she knew what he said was true even if she still wanted to deny it for now. It would take her a while to actually accept what happened but for now, even the smallest part of her heart that could be enough to give her some tiny spark to keep moving like her father would want her to.

The man looked at her for a few moments before his face took on a weird look like he was being told something and trying to hear it. He nodded and then looked up at her with a new question. "Now lass, you say you can't help your father, but your mother is surely not among the dead in the village?"

Magna sniffled reaching up to rub under her red swollen eyes shaking her head from side to side after a moment while she tried to compose herself enough to answer. "N-no… she is not but; she died when I was only two winters old. I-I don't even remember what she looks like… All I have is her necklace that my father gave me when I turned sixteen."

The old man's face took on a solemn grimace when he heard her words, but it was as if something spoke to him again. "Well, there must be someone in your life that cares for you. Anyone? Family or friends?"

Magna sniffed again, but this time it was a bit more confused than before. "N-no? I… anyone I knew is dead and, we didn't have any other family…" Magna glanced up at the older man noticing the odd look that he held and shifted a little bit away.

The old man looked down at his glass and took a long drink of his drink before setting it back down. "You know, Magna. You've been afflicted with pain in life. But for every downturn, there is something good coming for you. You'll have your happy ending. I swear it."

"Er… um… thanks?" Magna looked down at her lap uncomfortable before snapping her head up at the old man narrowing her eyes. "Wait, how do you know my name?" Magna stood up slowly standing away from the older man feeling every nerve ending in her being ready to fire off and react if this was a threat or not.

The old man looked at her with wide eyes before there was the sound of a spell breaking. Baldar snapped into view, looking like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. He couldn't move like an elk in the firelight and was only able to utter one sentence. "I can explain…"

Magna stared down at Baldar, the orangey brown eyes narrowing with an icy cold look that contrasted the bright shade of red quickly covering her cheeks. She felt every single fiber of her being roaring with hot anger, singing for Baldar's blood in need for revenge. Standing up slowly, Magna stalked closer to her insufferable, and not to mentioned forced traveling partner. Whatever little trust Baldar had somehow managed to scrape today over the last two days were torn to shreds and burned to ash in Magna mind. Now standing in front of him Magna stared right into his cat-like eyes in silence while her lips puckered up as if to say something.

 _Slap_

Flesh meeting flesh rang out in the Tavern, Magna's hand stung as well from the aftermath the slap that she just delivered to Baldar face. However there was a little bit of burning fur smell to the air, and much to the blonde horror in her anger manage to set her hand a blaze and in turn Baldar hair again. Glancing around Magna grabbed at the tanker that the old man was drinking out of and quickly tossed it into Baldar face putting the smoldering fur out. Glaring at Baldar as hard as she could Magna quickly turned around on her heels and stalked back to her room, tossing his bag out onto the floor in front of the door before slamming it shut.

Growling under her breath Magna paced about the room, her nerves fried and shot from the stunt that he pulled. " _The nerve of that cat! How dare he do something like this, wait. What am I talking about he is one of them, after all, I should have seen it coming he would pull something like this sooner or later."_ While Magna stewed she flopped down onto the bed but not before pushing the heavy chest meant to hold their stuff in front of the door to help slow Baldar down if he decided to come back in. Putting her face into the pillow, Magna felt her whole body become overwhelmed with exhaustion; that soon pulled her unwillingly down into the black dreamless sleep she desperately, while she rather not at the moment, needed.

 **S7: Hey guys! Thanks to the reviews from last time, Raven put in a little more time on this than originally intended to give you the best possible outcome. Thanks to the reviews we were able to discern what y'all are looking for out of this chapter and steer our future writing in that direction! So thanks for that and don't forget to let us know what you think of this chapter too. Happy New Year and may it start off grand!**


	4. Cat On a Leash

Baldar sat against the door with both his arms crossed and eyes closed to in an attempt to look as if he was asleep. . However, that was not the case for the Kajhit. He pretended to be resting as He didn't want anyone to have an excuse to blame him for something or other. Though to be fair, the idea of him getting blamed for something that he did do brought a weird smile to his face and an odd sensation in his stomach. It was a strange combination of Anxiety, Fear, Adrenaline, and possibly Euphoria ins some cases.

"Hey, cat! Why aren't you in your room?" The owner asked, stepping up to her desk breaking the Kajhit out of his pretend nap time

He opened his eyes and looked over at her with a blank face. "My owner locked me outside. She said I was to watch the door."

"Sure she did, and I'm sure you didn't pilfer anything from my counter." She replied , starting to look through her drawers.

Baldar reached around his neck and showed her a rope that went around his neck and under the door. Granted, it didn't have another end to anything, but she didn't know that and would assume he was actually leashed to the door. This wasn't going to be enough, though; he'd have to make up something about the rope that would make her think that he couldn't take it off. Luckily, he had it all planned out before she was even awake.

"My owner uses this enchanted rope to keep me leashed to the door, so she doesn't have to worry about me stealing things." Something in his mind told him that he used lies like this before.

She looked at him with suspicion before going back down and starting to wipe the counter down. "Well, nothing seems to be missing. She usually throws you out of the rooms?"

"Unfortunately, yes. My master's temper is shorter than a deer's tail." He informed, sighing as he barely got enough sleep as is.

The innkeeper's lips cracked into a smile as she went back to cleaning her counter a little more chipper than before. By his best guess, he'd say she was going to use his description of Magna to try and get him flogged just for the fun of it. Baldar knew that Magna wouldn't do it, though; from what he could tell from their time together at least he knew that much. Then again, he did save her and yet he was stuck outside the room for the night so maybe she wasn't as forgiving as he thought.

His hand reached up, and he started to knock on her door but then refrained from doing it. She was tired and needed her sleep now. He would just have to put up with the discomfort a little longer. That was alright, though, with what he just learned about her she could spend a week in there, and he'd be fine with it. The loss was a concept that was not new to him, especially now that he lost his memory.

The thought of his memory sent him diving into his head in search of something from his past. It was like everything was just out of reach, and he couldn't reclaim it for himself anymore. Like somebody owned those memories now and no matter how hard he begged, he could never receive them back.

Baldar closed his eyes and tried to imagine something from his past that wouldn't come up and forced him to wonder where it had gone. There were things that were missing that he knew he had somewhere in his head. A childhood that he couldn't find the key to and people who were important to him. His file was a series of doors in a hallway, and they were all shut to him.

He sighed and looked to the woman at the bar before his eyes darted to her coin pouch at her hip. It was at the perfect angle to get snatched easily and get away with before she could react. He knew ever motion he would take and just how he could get away without her being able to pin it on him. Sadly, he didn't know how he knew all of these things.

In the room behind him, there was a faint stirring that signaled Magna had awoken from her slumber. A few moments later there was some huffing and puffing as the strong box scraped across the floor, moving out of the way of the door.

 _ **THUD**_

Baldar found himself looking up at the ceiling as his only back support was removed violently when his traveling companion jerked the door open. Glaring down at Baldar Magna seemed to be back to whatever her normal may have been before the attack.

Baldar pushed himself up and stretched a bit so he could get some feeling back in his legs. He was left stiff for the most of the night so now, and it was a relief to stand up finally. The knowledge that he was finally free was a little relieving as he now went to step inside the room.

"Good morning, master. Did you sleep well?"

The girl followed him as he stood up with her eyes glaring up at him now rather than down. With her lips drawn in a thin line across her face, Baldar figured she was still mad over last night and his little stunt.

"I'm going to be doing something today; you can go do whatever the fuck you want I don't care. I don't want to talk to you yet after what you did." Magna bluntly spoke in as even of a tone she could muster up. Pushing past Baldar she paused and looked back at him for a moment before giving him a scowl. "If you do stick around and only the gods would understand why then just tell them I let you roam around to do chores or something. I don't know how that works."

"Well, I can't do that without being arrested or stabbed."

He sighed and watched her walk, from the room and leaning on the bed. It wasn't his place to tell her what to do, but he felt responsible now that he'd gone through with saving her. So, he just sat down on the bed and started looking through his bag until he found a journal.

Something hit his face a moment later from the doorway, a scroll landing in his lap with the girl standing at the door. "There, it's a note saying that you are free to walk around without me to do chores. Have fun." Rolling her eyes, she walked out of the room once again leaving him behind.

"Thank you, but I do not understand why you are so angry, Magna. It's not like I did anything wrong." He said, deciding it was better to speak now then let the silence between them continue further.

"Think about it; I'm sure someone like you can figure it out." Magna shot back from the front door before opening it up and leaving the Inn.

Once she was gone, he sighed and threw his bag over his shoulder with the scroll in his hand tight. He didn't want to get in trouble in the town, but worse was that he felt like he'd been there before and it hadn't gone right. Looking down at his journal, he brought it up to his face and looked it over. There was this sort of aura to it that made him afraid of what could come if he were to read it.

His hands moved with a mind of their own though and pulled the book open to a specific page. He was worried at first since it looked like the journal specially written in gibberish but after a few more seconds it came to him. It was easy to read for the most part, but there were some things that confused him about it. Though, there was one phrase that stuck out to him in particular.

 **I met with Karliah in Falkreath today.**

That name stuck with him and tugged at his heartstrings so intensely that he had to grab his chest. A flood of smells, sights and sounds flooded his senses and then died down to be forgotten again

"Damn it." He threw his bag over his shoulder and kept the journal in his hand tightly. Whoever this person was, they had to be here in the city or at least some information about them must have been.

Baldar stepped out into the city and looked around; it was brighter out than the previous day. All the Nords walked around with their ignorant stares that could stop anyone heart by a look. It was unsettling for him since they all seemed to glance at him every so often, but he also knew that none of them would do anything. He had his note on hand if anything did arise since he was here as a 'slave.'

The Khajiit moved to the general store and stepped inside to get supplies for their journey to the next place. Though he didn't much know where that was; you could get anywhere in Skyrim with at most a five-day journey. Inside the building though was a strange sight to behold as a man in robes stood at the counter with his hands clasped together.

"Please sir, I only need enough gold to help me catch a wagon to Winterhold. Surely, you can supply that for a spell tome." He pleaded, showing his tome with a fiery hand with a circular center symbol. "This is the entrance exam for the Mage's college. If you have this, then you can sell this to someone who wishes to attend."

The man looked at the tome and shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but I can't take this at all. I'm not in the business of magic and spells. Along with that, you're trying to hock that in Skyrim. If there is one thing that Nords don't like, it's magic."

"Among other things…" Baldar started, making his presence known to the two men in the room. "You said that tome is the one that is used by the college to allow entrance, yes?"

"Why, yes it is!" The man said, holding it out to him with a smile and nod. "It's the spell they are testing for this month! If you purchase it now, you can have it practiced by the time you get there. Don't worry too; It's a safe place for all kinds of people, even Khajiits."

"Thanks, but I'm not interested in the college myself but my… master says that she wishes to attend. How much gold will get you to the college?" He asked, reaching his hand out for the book.

The man pulled it away though and refused to give it to the Khajiit. "Fifty gold, though this tome is worth far more than that."

"Well, if you wish to be able to take the cart there, which I'm assuming you do base on what you said, then you won't try to haggle the price with me. After all, Falkreath doesn't have a dedicated cart, so you'll only be able to catch it when it's passing through." He said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a pouch of fifty coins. He liked to have his money in batches of fifty since it was the easiest way to count it out for both large and small purchases.

The man looked at the gold and then at his tome and then to the gold. "But this is the entrance exam spell."

"And you are desperate. You've already shown this, and therefore you have lost the argument. Take it or leave it." He said, tossing the coins up and down in his hand.

The man let out a huff and stuck the tome into the Khajiit's hand before reaching his own out for the gold. The cat opened the book to check and made sure that it hadn't been used. Luckily, it had not been and thus he was fine with the price. A toss of the gold and the man took off out the door with it as fast as possible.

"Thanks, that bloody mage has been in here all day trying to get that tome sold. Glad, you had a use for it." The owner said as he leaned on the counter with relief. "So, what brings you to the store lad?"

"I just need some supplies for a journey to the college." He said, taking out two more patches of gold and setting them down on the table for him. "Can I get a wheel of cheese, some loaves of bread, cured meat, and some cabbage?"

The owner put the items on the counter and charged him an appropriate sum. After that, he parted the store and traveled through the town. The land of Falkreath was fairly beautiful in the mornings as the entire place held his autumn glow year round. It always smells like spring thanks to the berry bushes that grew natively around it.

After a fairly boring day, Baldar went back to the inn that he and Magna were staying at. On his way in Baldar spotted Magna talking to an older looking man in front of the forge that was across from the Inn. Laying across the railing was her leather top armor leaving her in just the longer green shirt that had been lifted up and tied off under her chest to allow her skin to breath, even her blond hair had been pulled back out of her face. Even against the chilly weather Baldar spotted the light sheen across her pale skin that indicated that she was sweating or was just recently. Magna seemed happier, almost at ease with her conversation she was having with the local blacksmith, not her broken, upset, or hell fire angry self she had been before. As Baldar touched his claws to the doors, his ears picked up on the tail ends of the conversation that Magna was having, the last few words having to do with getting some food before getting some rest as she picked up a freshly made bow stringing it up onto her back.

Knowing this could be his chance to make it up to the girl, Baldar made his way through and to found her sitting going to sit in the inn with a plate of food in hand. Giving his best swagger, the Khajiit walked over to the table and took a seat next to her. His smile was one of knowing and excitement for what he had in store for her

"So, Magna, any ideas on where you want to go now?"

By now Magna attire was back to normal once more, with her hair down. However, that did not stop her from glancing over at Baldar, giving him a small eye roll while letting the air fill with a heavy pregnant pause.

"What is this part of your act too? Acting slow minded?" Magna shot at Baldar giving him one quick glance before taking a bite of her food chewing before letting out a sigh. "Yes I do, but none you don't already know about." The Khajiit sitting next to her would pick up on the faint tone of bitterness.

"Ah yes, well, I was wondering if we could make a detour to a place near Winterhold. You already know the Mage's college, yeah?" He asked, slipping his hand into his bag and noticing that his eyebrow was wiggling.

"What… about it?" Magna bitterness seemed to melt away into a quite hesitant wary tone, edging away from Baldar.

"Well, while I was at the store, I met someone dressed as a mage that said he was on his way to the mage's college. Anyway, there was some talk and he sold me this." Baldar pulled out a spell tome and sat it on the table but kept his hand on it. "This here is supposed to be the test for entry this month. I figure I could learn the spell and try my hand at mage craft."

Her eyes widen just a fraction but long enough for Baldar to catch the look in her eyes before it tried to return to the neutral expression. "You do realize, my creepy stalker, that book holds an apprentice level spell correctly? One that beginners can't learn until they have some time practicing and I hate, oh who am I kidding, you won't have enough time to learn a beginner's spell, practice, then learn that spell in time by the end of the month. For someone like me if I started tomorrow I would have a chance to learn it in time to join the college." Magna pointed out with a hint of smug satisfaction.

"Well, that's a shame. Guess I'll just toss it then." He said, picking the book up and moving toward the trash hole in the room. Before he even had the chance to take two steps to throw away the book a solid weight slammed into his back staggering him while making a grab at the spell tome.

"Oh no, you don't, not this again! You will _not_ burn that book so help me Baldar!"

He started stumbling around the room while trying to grab at her with his free hand. This led him to slam her into a wood pillar. His body was in fight mode and trying to get to a better state. "You hagraven! It was a jest! I was going to give this to you!"

"You don't joke about burning books you simple mi-" Magna gasped for air as she was slammed into the pillar, the noise drawing the attention of all the Inn patterns, including the owner who was shooting Baldar with daggers while some of the men started to stand up only seeing a slave acting out against his 'helpless' master.

Baldar noticed the people seeing their altercation and sprinted for the door and out into the town. Once out, he took off for the exit of the town with her hanging on. "Magna, get off you're drawing eyes!"

"You're the one who backed me into a pillar! And was going to burn a book!" Magna spat back but dropped from his back with a ungraceful huff.

The Khajiit steps away from Magna with the book still in hand and pointing to it. "I wasn't going to burn it. I was jesting, Magna. You're the one that overreacted to it. Do you even really think I would try to learn magic?"

Watching the girl pick herself up from the ground while giving him a glare the girl crossed her arms. "Seeing how you burned the scroll from before, I can't be too sure with you. And to remind you since you seem to keep forgetting, I don't know you at all, very little if anything. I don't know what your ticks are, what your personality is, or frankly, anything outside of the fact you don't have any concept of personal boundaries what so ever, sticking around when you have no ties to keep you around and need to get on my every damn nerve!" Magna huffed as they stood in front of the gates to leave the city, her back turned to him now as she kept her arms crossed. Silence filled the air between them for a few minutes before her shoulders relaxed visibly, the shifting of her blond locks indicating her head had shifted down as if to look at the ground.

"Look, Baldar." Magna started in an almost begrudging tone almost as if she trying to force herself to say the words. "Sorry for… overreacting, I just really don't like it when people joke about burning books alright?" Magna still had her back turned to him, for a simple girl from a simple town she was almost too trusting of almost strangers, born out of probably inexperienced Baldar found himself thinking while watching her.

"Magna, do you even know how scrolls work? Once you use them then, that's it. The writing disappears off the paper completely, and it's gone. The magic they are imbued with is used up. I burned the paper because there was nothing move that I needed from it." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose in anguish after facing the girl's lack of experience. "Besides, I only spoke about throwing it away because you decided to suggest that you could study the spell and learn it for the entrance exam like a Jarl with their head up their ass. Just because you have talent in magic does not give you the right nor allow you to be cocky about it."

Once Baldar said his words he threw the book over to Magna's feet and sighed sitting across from her against a tree. "Go ahead and learn the spell."

The girl looked at the book that was thrown at her feet taking a step away from it like it was a snake that tried to bite her. But after a moment she seemed to rethink about it and bent down to pick it up.

"Magna, you may not know me, but at this point, I don't even know myself. You're the first person that I saw when I woke, and you healed me. You're the closest thing to someone I can trust." Baldar stated, leaning against the tree and looking down at the ground.

"So you go around and listen in on other people's conversations that you say you trust?" Magna sighed holding the book close to her chest.

"I didn't know how to talk to you about it… It was just easier to listen in while that old man was talking to you." He said, bringing his hand up and rubbing his forehead.

"Seemed more like you were telling him what to say more than listening." Magna pointed out with a huff.

"I did after a while. I didn't want to reveal myself, but I wanted to comfort you in your time of need." He said, pushing his hair back and looking at her with an honest look.

"Well, maybe you should have thought about how creepy and invasive that was!" Magna stomped her foot a little bit rounding on him with a reddened face. "I was not ready to talk about it! I still don't want to talk about it! I just… want to forget this whole nightmare or not think about it too much okay…" Magna voice quieted down a bit at the end turning to the side to look away, shifting almost uncomfortable.

"They why did you talk about it with an old man that you met just passing through a room!" HE said, standing up and looking at her with a glare. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't want to talk to me about it because I'm a Khajiit!"

Magna sputtered and turned back around, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of the water as he could quite literally see her mind grinding to a halt. "W... Well… um… well…" Magna shut her mouth and turned away but not before Baldar caught the red hot flush that was creeping into her cheeks. "Well... "Magna falter again before turning to give him a small glare. "It's not _that_ … it's just I don't know you… and… look fine maybe it was some part of that okay! But maybe it was also the part of the person who kept being creepy and talking about life debts and stuff, oh and forcing me to pretend that I'm your slave master? That also had a part to do with the whole I'm not comfortable talking to you about it yet!" Magna huffed clearly uncomfortable at being called out on her underlying racism.

"Forcing you? You took only a single utterance of convincing, and you gladly took the title of master, just like any Nord. As for being creepy, I'm surprised you would refer to me as such after I fought off an entire bandit group to save you. Anyone else and you would have thanked them immensely, but you never said a single word of thanks. No, instead you just stayed quiet as I carried you on my back for miles to the nearest city. My burned back from the fire that you set upon me!" He said, glaring at her now as he realized how unthankful she had been.

"I didn't ask to be saved okay! Maybe I wanted to die; maybe I wanted to join my father if I could after running away and leaving him alone to die in hellfire from a monster that should not even be real! Maybe I'm still trying to understand a beat that could call down the sky to destroy my town, the only place I have ever known in my entire life is gone, wiped out, everyone I know is _dead_." Magna countered her voice was steadily rising as she tried to defend herself. "I'm sorry that I didn't bow down and kiss your feet for saving me! Sorry if I didn't think _your_ suggestion though all the way after trying to cope without having to be more of a burden to you. In case you forgot I tried to make you go away; I tried so hard Baldar but noooooo you forced my hand, and I panicked. But oh wait I also left you my last potion so you could heal because I didn't want to hurt you I just wanted to… I just wanted…" Magna voice faltered the rage still burning in her eyes, but the fire had burned down while she stood there turning her eyes to the ground, her face contorted with anguish and regret she was trying to hold back.

"I'm… sorry."

The Khajiit moved from his place of rest to the girl and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head into his chest. "No, I'm sorry. I let myself get carried away there. It's okay, though; I'm not just going to leave you alone in this world after what has happened to you, Magna. The world has not been kind to you, and I have no place joining it."

Magna stood there stiffening up as soon as he touched her, almost like she was unused or maybe even surprised by the physical contact. "And yeah… that is totally not what a creep would say..." Magna voice came from his chest, muffled by the rough cloth that he was wearing, it sounded heavy with sarcasm to him but also heavy with something else. Maybe tears? Sadness? It was anyone's guess at this point. "And... no, I was wrong Balder I been… very ungrateful and maybe ill thinking of you…"

"It's alright, Magna. You're not alone in your thinking as this entire country carries the same mindset as you do." Baldar looked around for any sign of someone seeing them, but it looked like they were in the clear for now to deal with this. "And I am here to talk if you need to, Magna. I want to see you safe, not hurting okay?"

"I will… try to keep that in mind. I cannot help something that was ingrained into me from birth you do understand that correct? But… out of respect for you helping me so much, I will try not to think like that of you. As for the talking…" The girl coughed and pushed away from Baldar to give them room between them looking away, still holding onto the spell tome with an iron grip. "I… still have boundaries, even to a stranger who has helped me this much. I… hope you understand."

"Alright then," Baldar said, nodding in agreement to Magna's words, glad that they were coming to some sort of understanding. "So, you've got the book, and we still have half a month before they switch to a new spell. What do you want to do?" As Baldar watched Magna shifted for a moment glancing down at the book in her arms before glancing back up at him.

"Well… if we could make it to College, then I... think I can learn it in time to join. After that, you won't have to worry about me anymore so you can go back to finding your memories that you lost." Magna shifted again looking a little uncomfortable. "But... I don't think we can go back to the Inn after our... Disagreement."

"Well, I have everything in my-" Baldar heard a rustling of a large creature coming from the bushes behind him. His reflexes kicked in, and he drew a dagger from his bag before getting between the sound and Magna. Ears swiveling to hone in from the new stress, he found that he heard multiple light footsteps like several creatures with four legs were circling them. "Magna, get ready to burn something. I think we are facing wolves."

"What?! This close to the town? That is not normal behavior for wolf's…" Magna squeaked at the sudden turn of events taking a step back away from him. "Wait… where are the town guards?" Magna questioned from behind him her voice rising a little bit in tone confusion and fear was laced among her wounds.

That was when a large, black dog leaped from the bushes at the two of them. There wasn't enough time for Baldar to take it head on but he had another option. He ducked down, pulling Magna with him just in time to watch the dog go soaring over them. The dagger then plunged upward and stabbed into the dog as it landed down away from them.

"Ha-ha got it!" Baldar said, but the dog didn't seem to realize or care as it turned around to them like nothing had happened. "Shit."

The two faced off with a large muscular dog, all the fur that it once wore fallen off leaving behind it's jet black skin that smoked an inky black air. Glowing red eyes drew focus to the decaying and necrotic face of the hound that bared its teeth at the pair through a lipless maw, the bone around where a nose would have been long ago stayed motionless. A chill swept over the odd pair as the hound crept closer to them, the rotting smell assaulting Baldar nose.

"Quick kill it with fire!" Magna piped up from behind him, sticking out her hand as flames erupted from her palm in a display of magic, igniting the hound on fire while it howled in pain but kept creeping ever closer to them. The decaying flesh odor quickly changed into a searing burnt meat that pounded at his senses.

That was when another leaped out from another bush aiming for Baldar's neck. His backup plan kicked in as fast as he could move. Claws flicked out from Baldar's hands, and he slashed upward, knocking the dog's head. It fell away from them but started to circle as well leaving them trapped between two dogs that were ready to pounce.

It was at that moment that the master of these hounds revealed himself but kept his face in the dark. "Well well well, what have my hounds found now? A girl and her pet cat?"

Baldar scanned the man and saw he was wearing some sort of armor tailored to be formal seeming. There were plates that held similar looks to vampire wings, crisscrossing his chest and a red cape that fell back behind him. In one of his hands was a steel sword and the other lit up with black and red magica unlike anything Baldar's short memory could comprehend.

Behind him Magna fire ran out, leaving her panting quietly as the girl shifted closer, enough to touch his back with her own. "Careful, that is an enchanted blade… can you give me cover for a moment? I have a spell that might make the dog things peaceful." Magna whispered harshly from behind followed by the ever so familiar sound of a bowstring being drawn back; Baldar guessed it must have been the bow that she had on her back all this time.

"As much as I can," Baldar stated, reaching back and pulling off his bow and arrow. "You there, dark man. Why are you attacking us?"

"Because, I'm starving!" The man laughed, his dogs taking that as their cue to attack again.

The cat's reflexes were luckily on point, and he turned to the first incoming dog and put the arrow right into its eye. This time, it was hurt and reeled back in pain while shaking its head furiously. The next leaped into the air, and he was forced to meet it head on in an attack by punching it in the snout with his bow hand. It dropped right by his feet, and he started putting arrow after arrow into the dog's head, but something was wrong.

"Magna, how long is this gonna take?" He asked, looking over to the man and seeing he was using some spell on him that was absorbing his energy.

As he questioned Magna, a flash of yellowish gold, magical energy burst from her mouth as an echoing ring filled the still air of the night. For a moment all was silent until the growling of the unnatural dogs filled the void once more, whatever spell that Magna had tried to use having failed to work on whatever kind of monsters that was attacking them.

"S... Shit, they are not normal dogs that should have worked! That normally works!" Magna panicked from behind him, shuffling around to face the man trying to drain Baldar. Taking her bow Magna pulled back trying to place one of her arrows into the attacking man, landing an arrow into his shoulder.

The man reeled back and grabbed his shoulder giving Baldar an opening to gain an advantage on him. The cat's palm thrust out toward the remaining dog and the black tendril shot from it before sucking the dog dry. It landed on the ground with a puff and that left him feeling energized but also something more. He leaped out and smashed into the dark man clawing him in the face but not before five sharp nails slammed into Baldar's side and pierced his flesh.

The thief howled into the air before feeling a jaw clamp around the side of his neck. His mouth opened for an even louder howl, but only blood sprayed out from it. It was beginning to look like he was going to be a goner when the sound of a gear turning and a whizz were followed by an arrow piercing the vampire's head that the Khajiit was freed. He could only fall back into the dirt with all his strength drained from him.

Looking over to Magna, he went to speak, but only blood came from his mouth. Baldar watched as Magna froze in her spot her eyes widening at the sight glancing back between him and the vampire nearby. But his garbled words seemed to startle her out of the frozen state, the girl dashing to close the distance between them as quick as she could. Behind her, the last remaining demon like a dog locked eyes on the moving target and leaped through the air after the unaware Magna. Just as it's jawed was about to snap down onto her neck another whizz of turning gears came from the side, and in the next moment, the hound was sent flying away from Magna with a cross bolt erupting from its heart.

"Get away from him!" Magna took her bow and swung at the vampire with all her might to send him stumbling back away from Baldar laying prone on the ground. A heavy thud came from beside his fluffy ears as Magna fell to her knees next to his bleeding body. "Just hold on, Baldar." A small glow enveloped her hand followed by the burning pressure of healing spell working its way through his neck as it tried to mend the flesh back together.

Even in his pain, the cat didn't stop scanning for danger and was trying to be ready to move at a moment's notice. Another dark figure came from the shadows, lumbering heavier and looking more muscular than the previous man. In his hand was a crossbow that was cocked back and ready to fire. Magna was too busy to notice him, but he stood over the two and looked Baldar dead in the eyes.

It was a strange sense of relief to know that this was where he died as if something ahead of him in life scared him more deeply than its end. However, the man had a different idea of what to do on this occasion and kneeled down beside the can. His hand gently placed on Magna's shoulder while his orcish face came into view.

"Do not waste more magika girl. I have potions for his current state." The Orc said, sounding professional and like this was a regular occurrence to him.

"Excuse me but wh…." Magna started into the Orc before turning her head to look at who was speaking, her words seeming to die on her lips as she swallowed hard. Staring at the Orc with a mouth agape Baldar watched as Magna slowly moved off to the side allowing the Orc to have more room next to his side.

The Orc kneeled down next to him and pulled out two bottles from a sack on his left him. One was small and red while the other was large and pink. "Girl, pinch his nose shut and hold his mouth open. We have to make sure he drinks all the health potion."

Magna seemed to eye the two potions, hesitating to obey the newcomer with her lips turning down into a thin hard line. In her eyes, there was a clear struggle on if this Orc was to be trusted or not but one quick glance back at the dying vampire made up her mind. Baldar felt his nose being closed off as Magna grabbed hold of it with her other hand slowly pried open his mouth, the pressure by the joint in his jaw making him open wide against his will.

The Orc leaned over the Khajiit and popped the cork off both bottles. "This is a healing potion, and the other is a potion for diseases. This should help him fight what is to come."

The green skin then began to pour both bottles into Baldar's mouth, and the liquid took effect quickly. He felt the bleeding in his side start to stop up and the wounds shifting. It all felt like a change in his body and then the disease cure started to hit.

"What do you mean by changes?" Magna questioned the Orc, her voice sounding farther away than it was before. Then his body started to foam and convulse with

"He's been bitten by a vampire. The venom from its fangs and traveling through his veins. Within three days he'd be one if he doesn't drink both of these potions." Foam then began to bubble out Baldar's nose, and he gargled the potions before starting to convulse. He tried to hold it down as best as he could but it hurt him so bad, and his body wanted to throw it up. "Quickly girl, use some of your healing magic to numb him from the effects."

"Oh, _now_ you want me to use my magic." A soothing sensation swept over his neck and chest easing the effects of the potions.

The healing magic did enough to keep him from throwing up, but it all still was taking its toll on his body. Finally, it finished when the last drops of potion managed to fall down his throat. The Orc then removed himself from the Khajiit and watched as he convulsed on the ground. His wounds finally closing up before he spewed a torrent of black sludge from his mouth.

"Ack, ack, what was… what the hell is that? Vampirism never had these kinds of effects before!" Baldar roared, wondering how he knew about that.

"I have no idea; I was dispatched here to help the guards hunt down this vampire." The Orc replied, standing up and putting his hands together and cracking his knuckles. "Vampirism has been getting more volatile lately as if a reaction to… Hm, interesting."

"Ew ew ew ew, it's on my hand!" Magna rocked back onto her heels flinging her hand around trying to remove some of the black sludge that had seemed to have fallen on her hand.

"Well, what have you got?" Baldar asked, shakily getting up and using Magna to lean on in his weakened state.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with." The Orc declared, picking his crossbow up from the ground and throwing it over his shoulder. "This is Dawngaurd business."

"Dawngaurd? What in oblivion is that?" Baldar felt Magna shift under his weight, letting him rest on her back while she turned to face the Orc from their spot on the ground.

"Vampire hunters." He said, crossing his arms and standing up taller. "We take care of the enemies that the regular people are too afraid to acknowledge."

"Oh boy, just what Skyrim needs, another guild," Baldar said, pushing off toward the gates and trying to get to safety. "Well, good luck with your hunting. I'm sure you are doing us a great service."

"Baldar wait where do you think you're going like that? Did you forget why we were outside of the town in the first place?" Magna called after him, the sound of the gravel scraping against leather signal her standing up and following along behind him.

Baldar looked at the ground when he realized that Magna was right and sighed. "Damn it, you're right. Ugh, in all of Mundas, why did we have to be here. Alright, let's start heading to Riverwood."

"Absolutely not Baldar! Your hurt and tried let alone in any condition to keep walking tonight. Why don't we just take your tent and set up just outside of the gates? That way if anything happens we can just run inside while the guards take care of it if they don't all, go missing as they are now."

"Not after what just happened. We need to be somewhere safe." Baldar stated, pushing off of her and starting down the cobblestone road. "Orc, how much do you charge for protection?"

"Well, considering you are still recovering from the vampire attack. I would consider this part of the cities cost." He said, looking back at the pile of ashes the Vampire had become. Baldar heard a foot stomping on the road and a loud huff from Magna from probably being ignored in her advice. "Fine, whatever don't listen to the voice of reason." Magna huffed from behind him, taking a few quick steps to walk beside him.

Baldar marched on into the night, holding his now only sore side as he walked. Behind him, he heard the steps of Magna and the Orc man. The day had been long, and it was only going to be longer until they reached Riverwood. He bemoaned the trip ahead though since it would mean having to make their way around Helgen since he refused to revisit the blasted place again.

"Just keep walking Magna. There is a long walk ahead of us."


	5. Vampires, Dogs, and Vampire Dogs

As the night wore on the small group marched ever diligently to Riverwood, the sky a mass of stars of all kinds of color, the larger moon was full to it's bursting point while the smaller moon was waning away. Magna yawned once more, tried from working at the forge all day, then the fight with the vampire a few hours ago, her nerves shot to Oblivion and back now that she was traveling with Baldar and a odd Orc that came to their rescue. They had traveled in relative silence for awhile, Magna following behind Baldar since he could see better in the dark then she ever could thanks to his cat eyes. Letting out a long sigh, Magna broke the silence by turning her head back to look at the large Orc male walking behind them for a moment before turning to look where she was going.

"So what kind of monsters where those hounds? They were rotting in places and last time I check not even the undead in the hall of the dead had dogs like that." Magna voice chipped away at the silence again, her curiosity finally eating away at her enough to speak.

"They were Death Hounds, the Dawnguard believes them to be dogs which have contracted Sanguinare Vampiris. The disease that makes people into Vampires." He said, twirling an axe in his hand like it was a common motion for him.

"I see… and you mentioned something about how the disease is becoming more volatile in reaction to your potions?" Magna pressed edging away a little bit from the Orc as he spun his axe, uncomfortable at how at ease he was with the weapon. If given the choice Magna figured she would rather deal with Baldar then with the axe twirling Orc if they went on a rampage.

"Yes, the best we can figure, there is some sort of tampering has been occurring. Whether just the virus itself has been changed or Molag bal tampered with it, we do not know. God help you if you're bit though. Your cat friend can attest to that."

"Here here." Baldar said dryly, obviously not happy wolfhound previous rolled her eyes a little bit at Baldar reactions but paused at the thought of a Daedric for could be messing in the affairs of mortals like this.

"Well have you found anything that might suggest you might need to start making stronger cure potions? The potions I have made in the past normally do the trick with anyone who has been infected but they never reacted like Baldar did. They normal just slept for a day to recover and had some digestive upset from the bitter taste." Magna mused half to herself and half out loud, rubbing a hand under her chin took she focused on the road beneath her feet.

"It's not the cure that needs strengthening. No matter what you give people, they will always vomit horrible black sludge." He said, tossing his axe up and catching it before finally stohead, giving slipping it between his , butre was anything that could help, I'd be the first to know."

"Yes but the convulmine, dammit, I have never seen a person convulse like that before. But I am sure you have seen more examples from your line of… wOrc." Magna pointed out, shifting the spell tome she haisten carrying since the attack giving it a once over again. If it was not for the poor light she would go ahead and be reading it while they walked but it would not do her eyes any is breaking she tried it now. With a heavy sigh Magna shifted the tome around in her arms drifting back off into her thoughts , pondering over what a person could add to a cure disease potion to help with any digestive upset so it would Magna, started to pass the black sludge. "There was several different things one would add to the potion but there is no way to really study its effects without a large sample group, someone who lives in one of the bigger holds would be able to do it…" Still deep in her thoughts Magna didn't see the slight glint of golden light by the nearby bushes.

Baldar put his hand out and stopped her from going any further forward before ducking down with his bow. "Magna, stop. There's something in that bush."

"What kind of eyes does it have?" The Orc asked, getting his axe off his belt and stepping up besides the cat.

"Lsigh, bute it has golden eyes. It's probably a bed, taking bush suddenly moved and Baldar loosed an arrow into the bush. The beast inside let out a growl and leaped from the bushes at him. Almost comically, the cat went to back up but the mud on the ground moved out from under him and his attacker landed on top of him. It then began to shower numerous licks over his face at a rapid pace. "Gah, damn dogs!"

Magna blinked slowly watching the wolfhound on top of Baldar showering him with 'kisses, a small giggling, bubbling up from her chest as she looked on at the disgruntled cat. I think it likes you Baldar." Magna cooed softly walking over to the hound holding out one of her hands for it to sniff. The hound stopped mid lick to look up at Magna. Staring back into the hounds golden eyes, Magna turned her body slightly away from the dog, as it walked over slowly sniffing at her hand for a moment before before giving it a lick with a happy bark. "Good dog! Can you get off the cat? Can you do that? Yes you can that's a good dog~" Magna sing sung at the hound who happily barked again freeing Baldar from the muddy ground.

"Gah, stupid dog!" Baldar said, pushing himself up and moving away from the dog and up onto a low hanging branch. "Why did he go for me!?"

"Well, obviously it was testing the weakest of us to see where it would fit in our pack." The orc proclaimed, wiping his nose with one finger. "You are weak after the vampire attack."

" _How did he move that fast when he is already hurt?"_ Magna blinked at where Baldar was one moment then to the low branch he was holding himself up at the next. "He probably… are you a he?" Pausing Magna peaked at the hounds underside and nodded in confirmation. "Yep, definitely a he. Anyway, he was probably smelling the food you carry around in your bag. Poor thing looks like it's half starved." Magna pointed out running her hands down the dog's side feeling its ribs among the coarse curly fur.

"Then let it die!" Baldar hissed, glaring at the dog.

"You know, dogs are great animals to have in battle. I say you should keep him girl." The Orc said, crossing his arms and giving Baldar a smirk.

"What?! NO I will not kill the dog Baldar! Honestly that attacked must have done something to your head I swear." Magna huffed crossing her arms, the dog beside her seemed to huff as well and if she didn't know better Magna would even say it rolled its eyes at the group. "I think I should keep it like he said, after all we are not going to be together much longer, just until I get to the Mage Collage." She pointed out putting a hand on her hip with the other hand on top of the dog's head glaring back at Baldar from his perch.

"Yes, and what happens if they don't take dogs?" He asked, eyes locked on the dogs. "You'll end up asking me to take care of the mutt."

"Well I will just have to think of something to tell them to let me take him in with me. Maybe something about a magical experiment who knows I will think of something Baldar. You don't have to worry about me asking you take care of him." Magna felt her teeth grind down together, her fists clenching and unclenching. The dog in question growled at Baldar, braking quickly at the cat in the tree.

The cat let out a low growl and started to get down from his perch atop the branch. He seemed very hesitant to move forward but ended up rejoining the group. "If I have to take care of that thing…" He shook his head and took off down the road leaving the Orc and her alone.

"What's his problem?" The Orc asked, mockingly. The wolfhound woofed and trotted after Baldar pausing to look back at the Orc and Magna and gave another woof as if trying to beckon the group. 

"Could be head trauma could be his attitude, take your pick."Magna shortly pointed out crossing her arms as she started to walk again, picking up the pace to make sure she didn't get left behind with the stranger. Watching her the wolf hound waited until she was close by and started to trot next to her once more, his tail wagging as if nothing had happened and it was the most care free dog in the world. "Don't worry boy, I will make sure you get some food when we get into town okay?"

The dog then sniffed the air and turned around and pointed to Baldar's sack with his nose. That was followed up by a small whimper from him. The cat met this with a glare and he grabbed his bag back from the hound. "No, you can't have my venison!"

"Since when can a Khajiit afford venison?" The Orc asked, obviously thinking that Baldar has bought it back in the city.

"I don't know where I got it, it was just mine. I found it in my bag last night and am saving it." He said, pulling his bag up and holding it to his chest.

Magna put a hand on her hip holding out her other hand giving Baldar a pointed look before speaking. "Then give me my bag then, you said you grabbed it before I came into the Inn today. I will share _my food_ with the hound." Magna huffed taking a few more quick steps to keep up with Baldar. "When we get into Riverwood I will take the time to go hunting so you don't have to share."

Baldar reached into his own bag and pulled out Magna's nap sack. "Fine, here you go. But mark my words that dog will only lead us into trouble."

"OKay now you are just being silly, it's a dog Baldar not a Daedric prince in disguise." Magna growing tired of Baldar odd behavior did her best to hold her tongue on the comments she really wanted to say about Baldar cathood being the issue at the moment with the dog. Grabbing her bag Magna pulled it opened and rummaged around for the loaf of stale bread she had bought the night before. Splitting it in half Magna offered it to the wolfhound that only sniffed at it before trying to consume the bread and her hand in one bite. "Easy boy! No need to take my hand too, poor thing." Magna chuckled a little bit as the dog walked and chewed the bread, whimpering happily at the small meal.

The cat simple scoffed and took off down the path with his arms crossed, leaving Magna with the Orc. "You two have a curious relationship. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was your brother."

"Try more of a mutual forced relationship and you would be closer." Magna huffed feeling her face contorting into an ugly scowl at the thought of the slightly chance someone would have thought they would be related in any way. Beside her the hound made a snirking weeze that drew Magna attention to it once more with a raised eyebrow but quickly dismissed it once more. "I wonder how much longer do we have to walk till we reach the town…"

"Not much farther, up around this bend is the standing stones nearby. They are pretty good at marking when you are close." The Orc stated, cracking his knuckles casually and showing that it was a force of habit. Even though they had made it this far without incident, he was still on edge for whatever was coming. Magna noticed the Orc being on edge and it made her on edge in return, after all who knows when the orc would turn on them in a blood rage and simply kill them all under the guys of them being "vampires".

"Right, the Warrior Stone, the Mage Stone, and the Thief Stone that make up the Guardian stones." Magna nodded her head in acknowledgment to the orc keeping close to her new found hound friend feeling safer around the new dog then around then the Orc who still didn't have a name or the cat and his moods. Hearing the hound whimper again Magna sighed hearing her own stomach rumbling in hunger but the puppy dog eyes the hound was giving her at the moment was to much to resist and not give into. Pulling out the last half of her bread Magna tossed it up into the air for the dog to grab midair rather than biting her hand off trying to get it. With a happy bark the hound jumped high into the air grabbing a hold of the food with a wag of his tail chewing on it happily once more.

"You might as well give the dog your food and pick up something for yourself at Riverwood. The inn there has cheap food that's good for the cost. Enough that I always make sure to stop by on my way through town." The Orc declared, walking with her around the bend and bringing his hand up to point at the three stones. "Ah, there are the standing stones."

"That was all my food…" Magna dryly pointed out to the Orc rolling her eyes a little bit at his statement, a course she was going to give the food to the dog! She ate last night and would last a few more days before really needing to eat anyway, it gave her plenty of time to hunt along the way for more food, and the thought of selling the hide of whatever she manage to take down was not that bad either. Tilting her head to the side Magna looked up at the three standing stones, it was not the first time she had saw them, when her father took her to Riverwood a few times in her childhood he allowed her to look but not do anything else with the stones. Magna frowned slightly at the thought of her father crossed into her mind once more, making her shoulder sag a little bit at the thoughts.

"Yeah… there they are." Magna noted softly glancing a head where Baldar just kept walking now about 20 yards away from the small group of three.

""Have you chosen a stone yet?" The Orc asked, watching the cat walk away and then waving him off. "Don't mind him. Cats aren't ones to enjoy the company of a good dog like you got there."

"No, my… father did not like me participating in any kind of magic whatsoever. Including getting a blessing from a standing stone. If it was not from temple then you could forget about it." Magna shifted on her feet trying not to stay on one foot for too long before it started to hurt to much to stand. She chuckled a little bit to herself a small sad smile crossing her lips taking over the frown as she remember her time as a child trying to get out of going to temple or sneaking out in the middle of the night under her father's nose and studying magic just outside of the city.

"Well, the magic of the standing stones grant affluency skills of one's choosing. I think I remember you stating something about needing to get into the Mage's College? The Mage stone could help you with that." He said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder and pointing to the stone with a wizard design on it.

"And the Warrior Stone helps with combat related skills, some say even smithing is including in this blessing." Magna lightly touched the Warrior Stone tracing the hammer the etching was holding in it's hand lightly. "And the Thefts stone blessing makes your tongue quicker, your hands lighter and steadier, and makes your potions more potent." Magna pointed out knowing what each of the 13 stones said to dot around the land of Skyrim did from the books she was able to sneak away from her father from time to time. The hound came and nuzzled its nose into the back of her hand with a small whine breaking her out of her thoughts once more. "Maybe it will help, but I only know two spells, fire and one that makes animals become friends for a while."

"I was just saying it to help you with your studies. Chances are most students at the college have already taken the mage stone's blessing to help them with their classes." The Orc explained, gesturing to all the stones. "In truth, you can choose which ever stone you want."

"I know, just…" Magna sighed rubbing her forehead the headache from the night before coming back with a vengeance making her head pound with every passing moment. With another sigh Magna looked over the small cliff side, walking over to lean against the thieves stone as she watched the river flow and wind around the hills. From her spot up high she could see the small village not to far off, the small dot of Baldar from walking further away from them. The hound barked making Magna turn her attention back to the issue at hand if you could call it that as her new furry companion as it wiggled around on the worn stone pedestal in front of the thieves stone lifting one paw up and placing it onto the stone.

Magna eyes shifted between the dog then the Orc trying to decide between the two of them unsure on what to pick. If she picked the thieves stone she would be able to increase her chances of just talking her hway into the College, not to mention the blessings would enhance her potions allowing her to sell them for more than normal. But on the other had the Mage stone would help her with her mage and even then she would have to talk her way into the Collage. With a deep breath Magna reached out and touched the Thieves stone asking for its blessing, feeling the sudden rush of magic run through her veins with a quick zap that made her yelp in shock. The hound turned to the orc and gave it a smug look before turning back to its new master licking her hand in a form of comfort.

"If I'm going to get into the College I want it to be on my own skills without the help of a blessing."

The Orc shrugged at her choice with his hands out to the side. "It is your choice to make, guess you can always pay your tuition by picking pockets at the local in. You should be good at that in no time at all."

"Excuse me sir, but like I have stated before it also helps strength your potions and for your information I am the Alchemist for my town… well.. Used to be anyway." Magna ended bitterly crossing her arms over her chest and stalking off closely followed by the hound.

He shrugged and threw a thumb up over his shoulder to point down the path they were walking. "Alright, whatever you say, bosmer. You wanna continue down the path so I can declare you both safe and head back to Falkreath for my payment?"

"I'm not a _Bosmer!_ I'm a _Nord_ a NORD, what is with you people and calling me a Bosmer? Do you see me having amber eyes? Do you see my skin is pale not tree brown or amber brown?" Magna turned heel and marched back up to the orc and poked him in the chest with her cheeks flaming a little bit. "Between you and that cat I swear to the gods I am going to pull my hair out." Magna hissed and turned around again storming down the road to Riverwood. The hound stayed behind making wheezing sounds shaking its head from side to side, but stopped when it noticed the orc was still there. Flattening its ears the hound quickly made off after Magna barking to get her attention again.

She made her way in relative silence down the path with the Orc silently walking behind her. As they came up on the city, she saw that Baldar had stopped at the front gate and was waiting for the two of them. In his hand was a fish that he seemed to be eating raw.

"Hmph, took you two long enough." He said, with a full mouth and a few scales coming out between words.

"Yeah geez thanks for just leaving us behind." Magna hissed as she walked past him but paused and turned heel once more and walked back to Baldar. "Okay I'm not doing that slave bit again, figure something else out, I refuse to do that again." Magna crossed her arms waiting for him to come up with a plan. "I'm sure you will have something in your bag of tricks."

"This is Riverwood, not a hold city. There is no need to put on a charade because they couldn't do anything about it if they had a problem with it. Besides banding together and attacking us though I highly doubt that they would." Baldar said, obviously having scoped out the small town already for himself. Magna paused thinking about what he had said, it was true about Riverwood not being a hold city, after all she had visited it a few times but all it had was a few town guards and not that many at best one or two at a time. With a sigh Magna nodding her head figuring that Baldar knew what he was saying in regards to how other people treated his race, memory loss or no.

"Thank you for helping us get to Riverwood." Magna turned and nodded her head to the Orc before turning around walking into the city followed by the hound just wanting to lay down on a bed, or the floor, or anywhere for that matter at this point. Glancing up at the sky Magna sighed once again notiing how they were only a few hours away from sunrise and once again they would need to set out and start walking again. With a grumbling from her tummy drawing her attention Magna groaned and held onto it with one hand looking down at the large wolfhound trotting happily as could be beside her. "I hope that bread was as good as it looked, dog." The hound barked happily doing a single lap around the short Nord before licking at her hand.

"You know, I just realized I never got the Orc's name." Baldar stated, walking up beside her on the other side of the dog. His ears were laid back though, easily signalling his distance for her fuzzy companion. "Probably should have in case we ever meet him again."

"You know if you want his name so badly you can just go run and get it, he's big he can't get that far away in a minute we left him." Magna pointed out dryly, not really caring about the Orc's name but rather just wanted a bed.

"Yes true, but I don't want to run after him that badly. I think I'd pref-" Baldar was cut off as a high elf woman walked past dressed in all black with gold trimmings. The cat had completely lost his train of thought and any ability to function at the sight of this woman. Magna paused and raised an eyebrow at Baldar waving a hand in front of his face.

"You alright?" Magna questioned the cat with a bark from the hound that seemed to ecoo her question in the doggy language.

"There's… did you see… Woof…" Baldar said, unable to get his words together completely dropping his suave veneer and becoming practically a bumbling idiot.

"Woof…?" Magna grew concerned that whatever head trauma that Baldar had suffered before hand was finally getting to him, preventing him from even speaking correctly. "I think it's time we get some sleep… you're talking funny now." Magna started to tug at Baldar's arm gently trying to take the mental cat away from the High Elf before she decided to have Baldar arrested for leering or something of the sort. The wolfhound jumped behind Baldar and started to push behind his knees trying to get the cat to move.

The cat was pushed forward and snapped out of his astonishment once the elf woman was out of sight. Gently, he pushed Magna and the dog away before looking around and seeing where he was. His mood did a complete turn around as he was suddenly looking at his clothes and other belongings. "Ugh, damn it. I need to change soon."

"No you're going to bed, that is the second time tonight your mood has flip flopped Baldar. I might be traveling with you begrudgingly but that does not mean I have to travel with someone with head trauma and emotional control of a limp leak." Magna put her hands on her hip and puffed out a lower lip pointing to the Tavern just down the way. "You need sleep, hopefully it will help your head. I will probably have to make you a potion in any case to help get your health back up after all the blood you lost." Magna mused out loud as she turned heel and started to march to the Tavern with a purpose to her step. "And don't think that this means I trust you, okay?"

 _I just rather not go at this alone… even if you are a strange person._

The Khajiit let out a low growl but then shrugged and followed her into the tavern, pulling a bag of gold out of his bag. "Alright, alright. Rest does sound good right now."

"For once thank the gods we agree on something." Magna rolled her eyes at the growl clearly impressed with his little temper flair while they walked down the road to the Sleeping Giant Inn. Letting out a small yawn Magna covered her mouth as Baldar opened up the door stepping inside quickly, noting the lack of people awake at this hour. The only person who was awake was the Nord woman running the bar, currently reading a book the woman looked up at the small group as they walked in, quickly closing it and placing it under the bar out of site.

"What can I do for you tonight?"

"Hello, my friend and I would like to purchase a room for the… day." The Khajiit said, holding up his septim sack so that the woman could see it. His eyes taking on a more friendly and lighthearted glint than she would usually see them as.

"We don't get a lot of travelers here in Riverwood, the war keeps most folks away, these days." The Breton woman started standing up a bit more straighter while Magna could tell she was eyeing them with a little bit of suspicion. "Lucky for you two I have a free room that you may rent for ten gold, and I don't do bartering Khajiit."

Magna watched Baldar talk the woman into a room for the night, wavering on her feet slowly just to keep herself moving enough to keep awake just a bit longer. Lifting up a hand to cover a loud yawn, feeling the edges of her eyes water up from it, Magna looked around the Tavern a bit more. Like the one they had slept at before, The sleeping Giant was more like a longhouse in its general room style with the large open fire pit. Hides of different animals dotted the floor every now and again to help warm up the room, along with the wooden benches and tables covered with silverware to eat off of. Alchemy lab was stored in the corner, a slow green tendril of smoke drifted off of one of the glass beakers evidence of someone had done some late night Alchemy in the last few hours or so. Rabbits and pheasants hung behind the Innkeeper, plump and ready to eat, along with some cheese and vegetables that made Magna stomach grow loudly in the room. The Innkeeper raised a eyebrow at Magna before turning back to Baldar.

"Wanders like you must have quite an appetite, why don't you get some food with your room?"

"Sounds good, we'll take a meal and a sweet roll along with the rooms." He said, smiling and setting down a good sum of 30 gold for everything he ordered. "You can keep the change. I don't see us needing it any time soon."

'Very well, let me show you two to your room." The innkeeper only shrugged at the mention of keeping the change, and pulled herself out from behind the counter and showed the three to one of the rooms on the left. It had a single bed with a straw mattress, chest at the foot at the bed, wardrobe, chair and table. Along the floor was a large wolf pelt that helped keep the cold out form the chilly stone floor. Magna followed along behind the Innkeeper and almost cried with relief at the sight of the bed, moving to throw herself into it but paused turning to glance back at Baldar.

"You should go to bed so you can heal up faster Baldar." Magna rubbed the back of her head before moving into her own room, taking the wolf pelt off the floor and piling it up onto the bed ti give her something a bit more warmth while she slept. The wolf hound barked softly and jumped up into the bed and claimed his part, placing the long tail over his nose while he waited for for her to get some food and then go to bed.

"Alright, you too Magna. You gotta actually rest if you want to get in the College of Winterhold." The cat stated, turned around and walking into his room and letting out an audible sigh. Obviously, he was already laying back in the bed with the door open. She let out a small sigh glancing at Baldar but was happy that he listened to her for once now and went to sleep. Waiting for the food to be cooked and served Magna tooked her plate of rabbit and vegetables into her room closing the door behind her. The warm smell of food filled the room, making Magna acutely aware of how tired and hungry she was as she sat down on the bed. The hound picked up its head giving Magna it's evile puppy dog eyes but the rumbling in her belly guarded her against the animal tactics.

"No this is mine damnit. You can lick the plate once I'm done okay? Tomorrow we will go hunting and get you some food for the road alright?" Magna bartered with the dog that stared back at her with it's brown eyes until it huffed and pouted turning its head away. Before the dog could give her another look the plate of food didn't last for long as she woofed it down, Magna even breaking open the bones of the rabbit to suck the marrow out of the cooked meat. The Nord really didn't 'taste' her meal but more concentrated on filling her empty stomach with something other then water, once it was all gone Magna started to lick her fingers to get the last bit of grease off them.

Now with a belly full of food Magna let her new dog lick the plate of the remaining flavors and keeping the rest of the bones to grind down later by tossing them into her bag before laying down on the bed next to him. The straw bed was scratchy and itchy but the quickly approaching darkness of sleep was enough to help her push the thoughts of the itchy straw out of her mind. Grabbing the fur covers Magna brought them over her head while she used the dog as a makeshift pillow resting her head on it's big barreled chest. The dog let out another sigh but stretched out its long body onto the bed taking up most of the bed with its length, while Magna closed her eyes and allowed her body to rest until it was time to get moving again.

A breath on the back of her neck made Magna shake from her slumber and she looked up to see Baldar leaning over her. Her eyes tensed when she saw that blood was dripping from his mouth and several arrows jutted from his back and into view. Eyes darting right and left, she saw that they were outside and she wasn't laying down but standing.

"Magna, you… you have to run." The cat said, then his eyes widened and he fell down.

The nord sucked in a sharp breath before taking off down a path that the trees lined. She didn't know why she was running, or what was going on but the urge to survive was overwhelming any sense of confusion. Each step pounded onto the snowy ground, sending her further and further away from the bloody wounded cat. Leaping through the tree line Magna entered the forest the canopy of branches darkening the path around her. There was a weight in her arms, as she noticed this Magna lookee down to see what she was holding. But as she looked down her vision swam blurring whatever was in her arms. Crying out with a sharp yelp as her shoulder collided with a tree Magna forced herself to tear her eyes away and look ahead.

She crashed down to the ground and looked up only to see that she was no longer in the forest but something different. Looking up, she saw that she was at the bottom of some pit surrounded by a purple glow. As she started to stand back up, there was a sharp pain from within her, not her organs or bones but a pain that ran deep into her soul. Bringing her hands up, she watched her body start to split apart from the tips of her fingers. The split continued down her body until she was forced to pull away from it feeling a ripping and tearing at every point of connection. It finally stopped she she laid finished pulling away from the other body.

Crying out in agony Magna wrapped her arms around her chest holding herself tightly looking in horror at the body lying next to her as the pain ebbed into a dull content pain that dug into her heart. Magna watched petrified in fear, a silent scream leaving her lips as the body twitched and started to stand up showing its face. The body was like a carbon copy of herself, but with redder eyes. The copy stood still for a moment and regarded the Magna on the floor then lurched forward tackling Magna. Pulling its head back and opening its mouth the copy slammed its fangs into Magna neck…

Magna awoke with a start gasping for air, a hand shooting up to grab at her heart that thudded in her chest. A light sheen of sweat covered her pale skin making her feel sticky and yucky. Slowly Magna heart slowed down and her mind returned from its manic state to take note of her surroundings. She was still in her room but everything was tilted up, Magna quickly realized that it was not the room that was shifted but rather it being from her being on the cold floor. The dog was looking down at her from the bed giving a small sleepy whoof at her state.

The dream left Magna shaky even as it started to fade from mind, leaving her once more alone with her thoughts. _What… what was that all about? Why do I feel so wary about it…"_ Magna other hand reached up and touched her neck where her dream self was bitten. _Ug get a hold of yourself Magna! Does a Nord let silly dreams control their fear? No we don't so suck it up, dreams can't hurt you. Ug, I need to get out of here and do something..._

Standing Magna grabbed her bow and arrows pulling the wolfhound off the bed with a grunt. "Come on you furball, time to get up. I'm not going to sleep after… that dream so might as well make myself useful and that means you too. You want to be fed after all right?" Magna huffed at the dog, who only growled at being disturbed from its rest. Rolling her eyes Magna grabbed her bag on the way out of the room, stepping outside into the twilight of dawn.

 _Tud._ The deer that Magna had been hunting for about an hour fell over with a grunt, the large wolfhound pounced on top of the fallen dear biting into its neck to finish the job.

"Good job Tollak." Magna stepped out from the bushes, pulling out a dagger from her belt to start working on preparing the kill. The formerly named dog gave her a look before giving the young Nord a huff nugging the deer closer to her so she could get on with it. Chuckling softly Magna started to skin the animal taking care to try to preserve as much of the skin and meat as she could to sell. "I hope you know you will have to carry some of this back Tollak." Magna glanced up to give Tollak a look who in return gave her one that almost looked offended if Magna didn't know any better.

"OH don't give me that look Tollak, I can't carry all this back myself and between the three of us we won't eat it all before it spoils. Besides I need to start saving money for the Mage Collage, someone has to pay for boarding and supplies and since... " Magna paused in her cutting staring at the deer in front of her before swallowing."Since I'm on my own now that papa is gone, no one else is going to pay for me." Magna started back up with her skinning while she talked freely to the dog who sat listening to her silently.

"I want to make my own life, not let fate decide for me what I should do. Is that so wrong to want Tollak? I always wanted to travel and see Skyrim but papa never let me leave Helgen without him, he's always been like that. It's funny you know, he hated and even forbid me from practicing magic, so I had to sneak out at night after he went to sleep to read or try to do some kind of magic outside of the city. I got good at sneaking out, hiding my books, and I don't think he ever knew I was doing it behind his back." Magna tone softened, removing the last of the hide from the deer as she started to cut the meat off the bones into small manageable cuts. "I… never felt right doing that behind his back I always wanted to be upfront with him about wanting to practice magic but after he saw me practicing the first time he got so mad. I know we nords don't like Magic that much but it always felt right to me like it was a part of me… but he never explained why he didn't want me practicing magic. I know mother used to be a mage, even went to the Mage Collage, but papa didn't tell me that. No I had to find out by her diary I found when I was little, but the book was so worn with age and use it was falling apart. So I did my best to transcribe whatever I could into a new book so that it would last longer. I'm happy I did, papa found out I had the book a few months after I finish... I really wish he didn't take it away from me once he found out I never did find out where he took it. It's probably burned now anyway…" Magna sighed and fell into silence, working till the first rays of dawn touched the sky turning it a fiery pink hue. Finally the deer had been skinned and butchered as much as it could have been, the antlers broken off and the rest of the remains left for the wild life to feast on to continue the circle of life. On her way back to Riverwood Magna picked whatever ingredients for potions she could find filling up her bag with all kinds of goodies.

Now just outside of Riverwood, the bridge just in sight Magna sat down onto a large stone, a large waterfall making a small stream next to her feet as she took a small break from walking. Tollak trotted up next to her letting out a happy but muffled wolf from behind the large bone in his mouth. On his back was the deer skin strapped down with some vines, that wrapped around the meat from the deer.

"Maybe I should give Baldar a few more hours of sleep before waking him up, after the fight last night I rather him get some kind of rest." Magna spoke out loud to no one as she leaned back onto her rock looking down at Tollak who was chowing down on his new bone. "Don't get me wrong, he is still an ass but I guess I do owe him... Even if I hate it. But all I got to do is get to Winterhold, get into the collage and then we won't ever have to speak to each other again. He will be out of my hair, and he won't have to worry about me anymore." Magna waved a hand as she tried to explain her reasoning to the dog next to her who only paused and huffed before going back to chewing on his bone, not a care in the world it looked like. Magna stared at the dog for a moment but rolled her eyes and continued.

"I can either take another bath, or read the spell book...Or… I could do both." Magna nodded to herself agreeing with her idea and went to pull out the spell book she needed to read so that she could even get into the Mage Collage. Running her hand over the worn leather covered book once she placed it into her lap Magna felt the bubbles of giddy rise up in her belly at the thought of learning something new. Learning had always been one of her biggest pleasures and now she was once again about to experience something new. Shifting to get comfortable Magna took a deep breath to calm herself down and clear her mind preparing herself for the onslaught of magic that was about to flow into her.

Opening the book Magna feet the rush of magic enter her mind, teaching her the spell that it was made to softly Magna looked down at her hands and smiled turning back to the book as she started to read over the words slowly. While spell books allowed its reader to learn a spell as soon as it was open from the enchantment, there was a difference between knowing and doing. One could know how to do something all day long but until they were able to apply that knowledge and make it come into the physical world then it meant nothing.

Feeling the magic slowly fade away, leaving her with a pounding skull and blurry vision as the effects wore off after a few minutes. Sitting on her rock to steady herself Magna blinked a few times to clear her vision once more closing the book in her lap and placed it on the ground before straightening back up once more. Taking a deep breath Magna held her hands out in front of her pulling on her magica from within, trying to recreate the spell as how the book showed her to do. For a long minute nothing happened, Magna let out a breath she had been holding with a small huff allowing her arms to rest for a moment before bringing them back up, trying once more. This time a jolt ran down her fingers sending a shiver down her spine as the electricity crossed over her palm before fading from view.

Now smiling Magna repeated this step several times for over an hour until she could produce a small amount of sparks in her hands at will. _Okay step one is done, now for step two, forming the ball._ Magna stood up this time making sure her stance was wide but grounded, her hands held close to her chest as she pulled from the magica once more watching the sparks from over her hands. Trying to concentrate the magical energy into a ball between her hands Magna felt herself start to shake with the effort. Letting the spell go Magna took a few deep breaths in and out before trying once more. Until mid morning Magna practice, pushing her magic to its limits and then some trying to perfect the spell, but by the time her magica would no longer form to her whims Magna had only master shooting the sparks out about a foot from her center.

Taking the time to bath and clean herself up, Magna spent the rest of the morning trading her fur and the meat for both money and cured beef that would work better for the road along with a small pack to place over Tollak's back when she traveled os that he could carry some stuff as well. With the rest of her alchemy supplies in hand Magna returned to the Inn and worked on a few magical potions as well as one that would return Baldar to full health and vigor once again. Downing one of her magica potions so that it could work by the time they stopped for the night so she could practice some more, Magna went to knock on Baldar door before opening it up.

"Baldar I brought you a potion to-"

Standing in the center of the room was Baldar in only his underloins, looking at his book in hand while holding a loaf of bread in the other. "A potion to what?"

"O-Oh gods I'm sorry!" Magna tossed the potion into the room and slammed the door behind her, feeling her cheeks grow hot from the flush that started to build after seeing Baldar in such a state. Bring her hands to her face Magna slapped her cheeks trying to take the heat out of them before anyone could noticed. Seeing how that didn't work Magna simply went to one of the near by tables and sat, staring at the wall trying not to think about what she just saw. A wet nose nudged at her hand before the owner of the wet nose pushed its way into her lap. Looking down Magna saw that Tallak was sitting next to her with his head in her lap, with a begging look to his eyes.

"What you're hungry again? But I just fed you!"

"He's a dog, they are always hungry." Baldar said, exiting his room in his roughspun tunic from before. Granting Magna relief that he was no longer in the nude. "Still glad you're bringing him with?"

Magna turned looking at Baldar for a moment before petting Tollak's head with a smug smirk. "Yes, I am happy to bring Tollak with us. Maybe he can keep the vampires away." Magna paused finally noticing what Baldar was wearing turning her head away while she shifted uncomfortably.

"Hey… um Baldar I know this might seem rude but… Do you have any other cloths to wear? You know, maybe ones that don't make you look like a _slave_." Magna kept her voice to a hush whisper glancing back at her traveling companion.

"Yes, but those also make me look like a thief." He said, bringing his bread up and taking another bite out of it. "There is a trader here in town that we could possibly go to and see about getting me some better clothes."

"Yeah that is f-..." Magna felt a yawn interrupted her sentence before she could try to cover it up with a hand. "Anyway, yeah that's fine you ready to go now?" Magna asked turning around to look up at him again, this time holding a hand over her mouth when another yawn took over.

"I believe so. I don't believe that anyone here knows who I am considering that they never contacted me since we arrived." Baldar stated, waving to the inn keeper and receiving a tankard of ale in return. Magna watched Baldar drink some of his ale for a moment before looking down at Tollak rubbing one of his furry ears, electing a small tail wag from the dog.

"Look, you help me get to Whiterun and to the Mage Collage, and I will try my best to help you figure out who you are. No life debt or anything like that, no strings attached. I need your help getting to the Mage Collage and you could benefit from someone else trying to figure out who you are. Deal?" Magna turning back around, looked at Baldar with a level but tried look.

The Khajiit raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled a little at her, wiping a tear from his eye. "Magna, I haven't owed you a debt since I pulled you out of Helgen. I just didn't want you trapped in the world alone and without sanctuary."

"Okay I give up cat." Magna threw her hands up into the air in defeat giving up on trying to figure out the Khajiit. "Whatever, just forget that part then, but do we have a deal or not?"

"Yes, yes we do." The Khajiit agreed, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a kind and genuine smile. One that didn't have a hint of the cats mischievous side showing or an ounce of doubt in it. She only got to see if for a second thought as she threw his head back, drinking from his tankard in delight. Magna groaned laying her head down onto the table, wondering what she had gotten herself into with Baldar and their deal even if she was the one who made it. _"At least this way it does not feel so forced and stalkerish for him to take me to the College._ "


End file.
